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This weekend, the 2024 Lincoln Forum held in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, authors and historians discuss Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War with presentations on Canada's role in the war, African-American reactions to Lincoln's death, and soldiers' motivations to fight. | |
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| This is Washington Journal for Saturday, April 12th. | ||
| This week, the House narrowly approved a multi-trillion dollar budget blueprint. | ||
| Along with the framework, Republican House and Senate leaders have agreed the final legislative product will include a minimum of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years. | ||
| In the coming weeks, congressional committees will begin identifying where the cuts will be made. | ||
| To start today's program, we're asking you, what cuts would you make to the federal budget? | ||
| Here are the lines. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can text your comments to 202-748-8003. | ||
| Be sure to include your name and city. | ||
| You can also post a question or comment on Facebook at facebook.com/slash C-SPAN or on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Good morning, and thank you for being with us today on Washington Journal. | ||
| We'll get to your calls in just a few minutes, but first wanted to give you more information on that budget blueprint passed on Thursday from Roll Call. | ||
| It says that the House adopted the resolution Republicans needed to get moving on their sweeping budget bill to enact many of their top legislative priorities after several days of negotiating with conservative holdouts. | ||
| Senate Majority Leader John Thune said his chamber would adhere to the House's much higher floor for spending cuts in the eventual budget reconciliation package, an emphatic public statement that enough House conservatives needed to hear before voting for the budget blueprint. | ||
| The measure was adopted on a narrow 216 to 214 vote. | ||
| No Democrats supported it, and Republicans Thomas Massey of Kentucky and Victoria Sparts of Indiana voted no. | ||
| The article says that Thune, a Republican of South Dakota, and Speaker Mike Johnson, appeared in a rare joint news conference Thursday morning to make the public commitment. | ||
| The leader said their agreement will ensure Republicans achieve $1.5 trillion in 10-year savings while preserving essential programs. | ||
| Said after the vote Thursday, Johnson told reporters that 11 House committees will begin the markup process post-recess for the reconciliation bill, which would be drafted in close consultation with Senate panels. | ||
| From that news conference on Thursday, here is more of Mike Johnson's remarks. | ||
| In November, the American people delivered unified government to the Republican Party. | ||
| They returned President Donald J. Trump to the White House. | ||
|
unidentified
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They gave us control of the House and the Senate, and we are going to make good by that. | |
| We have a big responsibility. | ||
| In the budget reconciliation bill, the reason we call it the One Big Beautiful Bill, everybody in this crowd of journalists knows that all the components that will be in that. | ||
| We're talking about ensuring that the border is secure, having the resources that are necessary to do that. | ||
|
unidentified
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We're talking about getting the American economy going again by reducing regulations. | |
| We're talking about restoring peace through strength and making sure we have the measures in place to properly fund those priorities. | ||
| We have a lot of things, American energy dominance, all the components that will make things better for Americans, drive down the cost of living, and get our economy really going again. | ||
|
unidentified
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And of course, not the least of which, the big components of the One Big Beautiful bill is to ensure that we don't have the largest tax increase in U.S. history all at once, which is what would happen at the end of this year if we didn't accomplish this mission because the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the tax cuts from the first Trump administration, as we know, would expire. | |
| So a big day for us. | ||
| We will now get the committees operating on all cylinders. | ||
|
unidentified
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They'll be working over the two-week district work period that encompasses Passover and Easter. | |
| They'll take a couple days off for those holy celebrations and then keep their sleeves rolled up and get right back to work. | ||
|
unidentified
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The committees in the Senate and the House will be working in a collaborative fashion. | |
| We've explained this, that this really is a one-team approach by Republicans in both chambers. | ||
| I'm so grateful to Leader Thune and his steady hand of leadership. | ||
| We had a joint press conference this morning making our commitments known of what we're going to try to do, and that is ensure real savings for the American people because we have to do that. | ||
|
unidentified
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We have a responsibility to get our country back on a sound fiscal trajectory and also make sure that we ensure and protect those essential programs. | |
| The Democrats, as I noted this morning, have said that we are going to gut Medicaid. | ||
| It is not true. | ||
| We're going to protect the benefits that everyone is legally entitled to. | ||
| The beneficiaries who have a legal right to that, it will be preserved. | ||
| Those are essential safety net programs that Republicans support. | ||
| The president has made clear, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid will not take a hit. | ||
| So you can count on that and you can watch it develop as we go. | ||
| That was House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday after the chamber passed a budget blueprint that includes $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years. | ||
| To start the program today, we are asking you, what changes would you make to the federal budget? | ||
| You can go ahead and give us a call. | ||
| Republicans, 202748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| We will start with Rob in New York, New York line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Rob. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hey, good morning. | |
| Thank you for C-SPAN. | ||
| You do a great job. | ||
| In particular, I like what you do when you're sitting there at the desk. | ||
| And I'm a Democrat, but I have many MAGA friends in New York and Florida. | ||
| I believe I was one of the people 30 years ago called into C-SPAN and ever since talked about the border wall down on the southern border. | ||
| I almost want to take credit for it. | ||
| But I'm a bit of a hybrid. | ||
| And I totally believe in cutting our expenses down in government. | ||
| But I want to talk to my MAGA friends. | ||
| And I want to say that I think that what we're seeing is a lot of smoke and mirrors here. | ||
| We're being fed the small cuts. | ||
| There shouldn't be tax cuts for those earning more than $400,000 annually. | ||
| There should not be tax cuts. | ||
| This is all lies that we're being fed about trickle-down economics, about how competition is going to save us. | ||
| I listen to both Democrats and Republicans alike when it comes to talking about tax cuts. | ||
| Nonsense. | ||
| They have to not raise, they have to not provide tax cuts for those earning more than $400,000. | ||
| I'll give you two more big items instead of these little cuts. | ||
| A million dollars here and a million dollars there is not going to cut it. | ||
| You have to remove the cap on individuals on Social Security. | ||
| I think the cap now, not on business, but on individuals, those earning at $178,000, the cap exists. | ||
| So you have to remove that cap so that people earning $3,000, $4,000, $500,000, $1 million put their money into Social Security. | ||
| That's a big number right there. | ||
| You have to eliminate oil company subsidies. | ||
| Now we're talking about not millions of dollars, but we're talking about billions of dollars in savings. | ||
| So I'm talking to my MAGA friends, which I have many, and they mean that we mean what we say. | ||
| We do want the government to be more efficient, but the big money is not being put out there. | ||
| Johnson, Trump, they're not talking about eliminating the big money. | ||
| They want those tax. | ||
| Higher point, Rob. | ||
| We'll go to Al in Plymouth, Massachusetts, line four Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Al. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| I guess I'm one of these magna Republicans. | ||
| You know, Democrats told us in the 1990s, the era of big government is over, and government is two and a half times of what it was. | ||
| So they lied to us. | ||
| Why do you keep believing these lying Democrats? | ||
| All they care about is more spending. | ||
| We are leaving $36 trillion to our grandchildren. | ||
| We have tried the great society for 60 years, out of the left. | ||
| They never want to admit when they're wrong. | ||
| When does it end? | ||
| We need to cut the government. | ||
| The good things in life in this modern era come from the free market. | ||
| We get to press a button and you can have something delivered. | ||
| It used to be a few days. | ||
| Now it's three or four hours. | ||
| Look at the post office of failure. | ||
| Now, I'm not suggesting there are things that government doesn't do that they shouldn't be doing. | ||
| Of course, to lease and fire. | ||
| But when you want a fire truck, you have to go to the free market. | ||
| When you need a police car, you have to go to the free market. | ||
| So you would think in this modern era, we can come to that final line of demarcation of what does government do well? | ||
| What does the free market do? | ||
| You need both systems. | ||
| The left said we had a problem with global warming. | ||
| Mr. Musk created an electric car. | ||
| Now they hate that. | ||
| So I'm very confused. | ||
| I think the left is very confused because it's really not about policy. | ||
| It's really about power. | ||
| All they care about is power. | ||
| Al, you mentioned that cuts do need to be made. | ||
| What specific areas would you like to see cuts in? | ||
|
unidentified
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At least across the board, 10 to 20 percent. | |
| My sister works for the Department of Agriculture. | ||
| Every fall, she needs to get rid of the loans that they have. | ||
| Oh, that's how the federal government works. | ||
| I'm involved in local town politics. | ||
| Well, you base the next year based on that you need to spend what you need to zero out your budget. | ||
| This is what has gone on for 60 years. | ||
| And so the whole, they need to make, they need to get this under control. | ||
| That was Al in Massachusetts. | ||
| Gary in Middlefield, Ohio, line for independence. | ||
| Hi, Gary. | ||
|
unidentified
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Am I on the air? | |
| Yeah. | ||
| Gary, are you there? | ||
| I think we lost. | ||
| Gary, we'll go to Tim in Rochester, New York. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
| Good morning, Tim. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| I'm tired of these Republicans talking about cuts and everything. | ||
| Asked them the last time who was a president when we had a surplus. | ||
| Can you ask them that? | ||
| It was Bill Clinton, a Democrat. | ||
| So it's always now on a sudden name power or whatever. | ||
| They always talk about making cuts. | ||
| Making cuts to what? | ||
| Across the board for what? | ||
| It's you people that's giving these rich people tax cuts for no freaking reason. | ||
| So I don't understand it about whatever. | ||
| They act like money's going to go back in their pocket, which is not when they do make cuts. | ||
| It doesn't matter. | ||
| The government is not going to give you extra money or anything. | ||
| So why did you worry about it? | ||
| And like I said, the last president to have a surplus was Bill Clinton. | ||
| And since George Bush got in there, and this blew everything up. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Now is Tim Charles in Tioga, Pennsylvania, line for Republican. | ||
| Hi, Charles. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi, how are you doing? | |
| Doing well, Charles. | ||
|
unidentified
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How are you doing here today? | |
| Doing well, Charles. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, how you doing? | |
| Let's talk with Rob in Michigan, line for independence. | ||
| Hi, Rob. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| I guess I'll differ from your other callers is that they seem focused on fixing the blame, and I think we need to focus on fixing the problem. | ||
| And it's not a question of gathering more taxes because we're trillions of dollars in debt and growing ever deeper. | ||
| The Democrats have an opportunity here to regain public trust. | ||
| If they propose a balanced budget amendment, the conservatives who claim to be fiscally responsible would have to join them in that. | ||
| And they should be able to garner enough votes to pass that through both houses. | ||
| And with 45 states already having some sort of a balanced budget requirement, I'm sure that they could get the three-quarters ratification needed. | ||
| But as far as what to cut, it's a question of what to fund. | ||
| And we need to fund the necessities and see how far that money takes us. | ||
| And then next thing would be: is there any money for the niceties? | ||
| And I don't think we'll have to worry about the latter part. | ||
| I think that we'll find out that when we come to the necessities, there might even have to be some cuts there, and we can't do 100% of every program that we think is mandatory. | ||
| Rob, tell me about the programs that you're saying are necessary and what you see as potential cuts to those if it does come down to it. | ||
|
unidentified
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I think we need to make sure that we are funding obviously Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, national security, our military to the extent that we can protect our interests and not necessarily the interests all around the world and ask other countries to take care of that. | |
| I don't know. | ||
| There might be some cuts in duplication processes. | ||
| I think there's at least three or four programs that fund the feeding of children, whether it's food stamp programs or feeding them in school or sending home extra meals to feed them seven days a week. | ||
| Medicaid patients could be asked, well, why don't you have some sort of public contribution to assistance, whether it's getting a part-time job, volunteering. | ||
| It's not going to be a good thing. | ||
| We've spent since 1980 when we were just over $100 trillion in debt. | ||
| We spent the next 40 years giving everybody everything, saying, well, we want you to feel good about it. | ||
| And we've been handing out credit cards with our grandchildren's signature on it. | ||
| That's got to stop. | ||
| That was Rob in Michigan. | ||
| It was Thursday after the House passed that budget blueprint that House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke to the press reacting to the passage and potential cuts to various programs. | ||
| Here are his remarks. | ||
| Here in the Capitol, the battle lines with respect to Democratic values and Republican values have once again been clearly drawn. | ||
|
unidentified
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House and Senate Democrats are standing on the side of the American people, and we continue to be committed to building an economy that's affordable and that works for everyday Americans and drives down the high cost of living while protecting health care, nutritional assistance, and the social security of the American people. | |
| Donald Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans are doing everything they can to tank our economy, drive us toward a recession, and gut the health care of the American people by visiting upon them the largest Medicaid cut in history, | ||
| along with the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history, all in service of enacting massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors like Elon Musk. | ||
| It's a toxic scheme that they cannot hide from because it continues to be on full display on the House floor and on the Senate floor for the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
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The budget resolution that passed the House today will set in motion some of the most extreme cuts to health care, nutritional assistance, and the things that matter to everyday Americans in our nation's nearly 250-year history. | |
| It's a disgrace. | ||
| This is just the beginning. | ||
| And House Democrats are going to aggressively push back every day, every week, every month, until we bury this reckless Republican budget resolution in the ground, never to rise again. | ||
| For this first hour of today's program, we're asking you what cuts you would add to the federal budget. | ||
| We are also taking your calls. | ||
| We're also getting reaction on social media. | ||
| This coming in on Facebook from Joe, he says exactly what Elon Musk has been finding, and then some. | ||
| Brad says all funding for sanctuary policies and any state that funds men and women's sports, all climate change funding, and funds for planned parenthood. | ||
| Jim says, I like what President Trump and Dodge Doge are cutting. | ||
| I just wish Congress would make these permanent so the next president can't bring them back. | ||
| And Michael says, I'd cut Doge immediately. | ||
| Gene says, I would like to see the defense contractors are reined in. | ||
| The extreme prices they charge are disgusting. | ||
| It's been going on for a long time. | ||
| And one more, Keith says, defund the Department of Education. | ||
| From the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, they have a chart breaking down where spending was for the 2023 budget. | ||
| It was $6.1 trillion. | ||
| You can see Social Security made up the largest percent at 22%. | ||
| After that, it was other mandatory spending. | ||
| Non-defense discretionary spending was 15%. | ||
| Medicare, 14%. | ||
| Defense, which is in the discretionary category, came in at 13%. | ||
| And interest payments went to 11%. | ||
| The remaining 10% went to Medicaid. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| Let's talk with Robert in Georgia, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, sir. | |
| This is Robert Laslam, Georgia. | ||
| I'm just talking about the question that you asked about the cuts and everything. | ||
| As I see it, I feel about it. | ||
| There's not the problem about the cutting of the budget. | ||
| The whole thing is, the whole thing, what are we going to cut? | ||
| We need to know what we're going to be doing with the money because we need these programs. | ||
| Besides cutting, because I do agree with Dodge, Dodge, a dove, but get rid of the waste and the abuse and everything else. | ||
| But we need these programs and our system. | ||
| That's how I see it. | ||
| We need these programs. | ||
| You know, we don't need to, besides cutting, but we need the program. | ||
| But let's cut the waste and the abuse, but we need all these programs. | ||
| You know, save the money, help us, but we need the programs. | ||
| Got your point, Robert. | ||
| Let's talk with Paul in Chesapeake, Virginia, line for independence. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi, Paul. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| A couple of things. | ||
| First, I'd like to say the gentleman from Massachusetts was correct about the Social Security because I just contacted my representative about taking the cap off, and I just got reassured that I would still continue to get my benefits and not the cap. | ||
| So evidently, Congress doesn't want to do much about it. | ||
| But back to what you're asking about the cuts to the federal budget. | ||
| One of the things, again, is the federal Department of Education. | ||
| When it was founded or created from a division to a department in ninth to cabinet level in 79, we were number one in the country in all the STEM stuff. | ||
| It's been created and now we're 39th or 40th. | ||
| That should tell you something right there. | ||
| Secondly, the country was founded with four cabinet positions. | ||
| Four. | ||
| We have 15 now. | ||
| And then when you start breaking things down, people, I've been a veteran and I'm a retired federal employee, but I don't understand why we have to have 17 intelligence positions or departments. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| So the duplicity within the federal government of agencies going having to jump through one hoop from one agency to another, to another, to another, to another to get something approved or done, this is much of the problem. | ||
| And as they say in DOS, it is the bureaucracy, the bureaucracy, and the paperwork. | ||
| Whatever happened to the damn paperwork reduction act and to the gentleman who talked about Clinton leaving the surplus, he's got to remember it was a Republican Congress who wrote that budget that gave it to Bill Clinton. | ||
| So, you know, that was some bipartisanship there. | ||
| That has gone away. | ||
| They have thrown that away. | ||
| And what happens is we have to get back to that. | ||
| So there's things I would cut, like, yes, the Department of Education that should be given back to a division of some sort when it used to be under health, education, and welfare before they split that up. | ||
| Got your point, Paul. | ||
| Let's talk with James in Clarksburg, West Virginia, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, James. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Hi, James. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
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Oh, I was thinking, see, I'm on a cloth bag and I need, you know, different things to put a nerve bag on, even paste. | |
| So I just wonder if they cut Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid all or something like that. | ||
| How am I going to get bags and how am I going to get things to take care of the Austin bag to put on my body? | ||
| See, I don't have no colon. | ||
| And I don't call that a waste of money. | ||
| It's desperate that I need it, the bag and different things to put the, you know, when I change bags. | ||
| James, if they don't make cuts to Medicare, where do you think the federal government should make cuts? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, it's just that I need the bag to make up for the, you know, for, you know, to my tool to go in. | |
| And that was James in West Virginia. | ||
| Let's talk with Brady in Iola, Texas, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Brady. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Doing well. | ||
|
unidentified
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I would suggest that they start with a defense, and I'm a veteran. | |
| But also, people would stop listening to other individuals who are just flewing out propaganda and start doing their research as I do. | ||
| They will find out that most of the time that the Republicans have a larger increase in their spending projects because they do cuts for basically being rich individuals. | ||
| Where the last given, where the last two decades have shown that most of the cuts have been made and progress in cuts have been made on the presidents or our Democrats. | ||
| That's all I have to say this morning. | ||
| That was Brady. | ||
| Let's talk with Ed in Ocean City, New Jersey Line for Independence. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi Ed, yes. | |
| Uh, Ed O'donnell. | ||
| Uh, massive cuts to the Pentagon budget. | ||
| Um, Costa Rica and 20 other nations have done away with their militaries completely, and all their social problems are better. | ||
| I'm a pacifist, so I would do away with the military completely, but at least massive cuts. | ||
| And then National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, I'm a great supporter of those programs. | ||
| But they can get enough private donors who are fanatics about those two issues to solve the problem. | ||
| That was Ed in Ocean City, New Jersey, and a couple people mentioning the Pentagon budget as a place for potential cuts. | ||
| This headline in Politico this week, Trump Hagseth promised $1 trillion Pentagon budget. | ||
| It says that President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pledged a first ever $1 trillion defense budget proposal on Monday, a record sum for the military. | ||
| Trump, during a press event with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the upcoming budget would be in the vicinity of $1 trillion. | ||
| Hagseth went further in an ex post on Monday saying Trump is rebuilding our military and fast. | ||
| It said that the number would be a significant increase from the $892 billion funding Congress allotted for national defense programs this year, which includes the Pentagon, nuclear weapons, and security programs at other agencies. | ||
| It also comes as the Armed Services seeks to cut 8% of their individual budgets and reinvest the money in modernization efforts. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| Let's talk with Stephanie in Hanover, Maryland, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Stephanie. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hello. | |
| I'm sorry, can you hear me? | ||
| Yes, I can, Stephanie. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Actually, I mean, my thought is, of course, I always think that the Defense Department, they should definitely make cuts there. | ||
| But I think it makes sense to look at all the different programs and I think make a balance, you know, make balanced cuts and not just make cuts solely based on your ideological thinking. | ||
| Because I think that's where a lot of the problems come in is when you look at the cuts and it's like you're only cutting stuff that ideologically you don't agree with when you kind of have to look at all of the programs and then go through and make the cuts. | ||
| Like I said, in a more balanced approach where I think people will probably be more, it'll be more palpable to, I guess, to everybody in terms of understanding why these cuts have to be made. | ||
| But I mean, honestly, that's kind of my thing. | ||
| I think that people have to understand as well, making these, you can't cut it, cut and cut. | ||
| And the ultimate goal is only just to give tax cuts. | ||
| It has to be something else in the end. | ||
| If you're truly serious about balancing the budget, it cannot just be we're just going to cut everything, but we're going to give these tax cuts that in the end are going to massively raise the debt. | ||
| So, I mean, hopefully they will take a more balanced approach, but definitely looking at big drivers, the big drivers of most of the budgetary issues and not just stuff that people just don't like because it doesn't align with whatever political views they have. | ||
| So, Stephanie, you're saying a balanced approach. | ||
| Give me an example of how Congress can do that or a couple departments that would make that balance possible. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, I mean, of course, it's going to be slightly different for, I guess, every agency because there's different, what's the word? | |
| They all have different. | ||
| I don't know how to explain this. | ||
| I'm trying to explain this in a way where it makes sense, but it's going to be tricky with each one. | ||
| I mean, that's the challenge: is trying to hone in specifically, like they said, on, you know, you can look at waste, fraud, and abuse in every single agency. | ||
| It's going to be slightly different for each one of these programs because each one of these programs do, they have, they do different things and their end goals may be different. | ||
| So I think that at least from that approach, looking at the waste fraud and abuse would be a start across the board, and then just kind of, you know, going from there and not just cherry-picking out specific programs that don't align with your ideological views. | ||
| That's where I think it becomes a problem. | ||
| That was Stephanie in Maryland, and it was on Thursday that when the House passed that budget, that House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke about the next steps in identifying where those cuts could be made and the additional framework. | ||
| Here are more of his remarks. | ||
| Yeah, we have big menus of options and items in 11 different committees of jurisdiction. | ||
| And one of the big ones is energy and commerce because you have such a broad jurisdiction. | ||
| And that's where you'll be looking at, you know, Medicaid, for example, which is the thing that the Democrats are trying to frankly lie to the American people about. | ||
|
unidentified
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No one has talked about cutting one benefit in Medicaid to anyone who's duly owed. | |
| What we've talked about is returning work requirements. | ||
| So, for example, you don't have able-bodied young men on a program that's designed for single mothers and the elderly and disabled. | ||
| They're draining resources from people who actually do that. | ||
|
unidentified
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So if you clean that up and shore it up, you save a lot of money and you return the dignity of work to young men who need to be out working instead of playing video games all day. | |
| We have a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicaid. | ||
| Just one tiny example. | ||
| The estimate is $51 billion a year, and Medicaid is lost to fraud. | ||
| That's unconscionable. | ||
| We now have, with the Doge efforts and with new algorithms and with new oversight responsibilities and opportunities, we have the ability to carve that out. | ||
| We have a responsibility to do it. | ||
| That estimate by some people, some estimates say that is very low. | ||
| It's actually much higher than that. | ||
| So we're going to go through, carve out, find these savings, low-hanging fruit, and examples like that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's a lot of it in the federal government. | |
| I mean, look, we have a $36 trillion federal debt right now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're running deficits every year. | |
| It's not the way to run our country. | ||
| We need to return to fiscal sanity, and that's what the Republican Party represents. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| That's good for every American. | ||
| Just about 25 minutes left in this first hour. | ||
| Today's Washington Journal asking what cuts you would make to the federal budget. | ||
| Several people this morning talking about opposed to cuts at all or saying that the budget should be increased. | ||
| This polling from YouGov came out in the end of February and said that more than 70% of Americans think federal funding should be increased, either a lot or a little, for each of half a dozen areas, elderly care, veteran services, cybersecurity, health care services, disaster relief, and mental health care services. | ||
| Majorities also want more funding directed to homelessness services, food assistance, infrastructure, disability assistance, border security, early childhood education, and K through 12 education, along with others. | ||
| Foreign aid is the only instance which a share approaching a majority, 49%, support a reduction in federal funding. | ||
| Around one-third, 35%, want to reduce funding for artificial intelligence. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| Let's hear from Leon in Dallas, Texas. | ||
| Line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Leon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Someone mentioned the Defense Department being cut. | ||
| Well, the United States spends more money on defense than the next six largest countries combined. | ||
| And they don't need an increase in defense spending. | ||
| If you want to go in somewhere and look at where the fact is, that's the first place you need to start. | ||
| Secondly, no one talks about the Trump tax cuts that were enacted when Trump 1 was in effect. | ||
| When corporate tax rates plummeted and the treasuries were drained and the surplus that Obama left was immediately turned into a deficit because taxes were cut for the rich. | ||
| Trump has lied to the American people about almost everything he stated. | ||
| I'm going to end inflation. | ||
| Well, tariffs don't end inflation. | ||
| They create inflation. | ||
| I'm going to end the war in Ukraine. | ||
| The war in Ukraine isn't over with. | ||
| The American people have to stop being listening to these lies and analyze the truth of what they see with their own two eyes. | ||
| The Trump administration is a plutocratic driven administration. | ||
| It works for the rich and not the working people. | ||
| And until the working people wise up and see that this tax cut, this jobs cut, government cut, rules that they're trying to run is nothing but something that's going to fuel the pockets of the rich and drain the pockets of the working people, they're not going to be able to, how can I say it? | ||
| They're not going to be able to function properly with the government because they're going to cut it so deeply that only rich people are going to be able to get anything out of these trillions of dollars that they're collecting in taxes from supposed revenues that, | ||
| again, were cut by Trump in his first term and were not going to be enacted on unless, or not going to be reinstated rather, unless he was allowed to be president, which has happened. | ||
| And now the country is stuck trying to figure out, well, what are we going to do next? | ||
| Because we don't know what's going to happen with the stock market. | ||
| We don't know what's going to happen with this. | ||
| And all this is stuff that Trump has misled the American people with. | ||
| And he needs, the American people need to wake up and say, we don't need someone as president that's going to lie bold faces to us and do what he wants to do the way he wants to do it instead of taking care of the American people. | ||
| That was Leon in Texas. | ||
| Duke in Fairmont, West Virginia, lying for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Duke. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| I think There's so many paid holidays. | ||
| I was in the military and I worked for the city. | ||
| And there's so many paid holidays, and every year we get more. | ||
| Why can't people just have a day off and the money going to come back to the taxpayers? | ||
| Just think how much money that is between the state workers and the government workers together. | ||
| That was Duke in West Virginia, Robert in California, line for independence. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Robert. | |
| Yeah, so 28% of the budget is Medicare and Medicaid. | ||
| Why aren't they combined as one spending, one spending expenditure, and get rid of the redundancy? | ||
| They're basically the same programs. | ||
| So that's the first place you want to look at. | ||
| The second thing is you've got 750 military bases around the world. | ||
| Do we need 750 military bases? | ||
| I don't think so. | ||
| We need to reform the whole business of private contractors within the Defense Department. | ||
| And all these weapon systems that we don't use need to be eliminated. | ||
| And the reason why they're not eliminated, because you've got people in Congress on the budget committee or on the military committee, and they all want this stuff in their districts where they can get bases and money and jobs in their districts. | ||
| So these things need to be looked at and vetted. | ||
| That's what JOES should be doing. | ||
| Is there a need for 750 military bases? | ||
| Is there a need for certain weapon systems? | ||
| Is there a need for private contractors? | ||
| That's the kind of reform that we have. | ||
| The problem is you've got guys like Hakeem Jeffries, who's against, he's against eliminating a single dollar in spending. | ||
| And he goes on TV and he has these wild propagandist type rhetoric. | ||
| And on the other side, with the Republicans, all they're concerned about is how much money they can cut for corporate America who doesn't pay their fair share. | ||
| So you've got an institutionalized corrupt system in both parties, and no one is seriously looking at the bottom line. | ||
| That was Robert in California. | ||
| This headline in this morning's Washington Post, massive cuts to NASA science proposed early in White House plan. | ||
| The article says that NASA's science budget could be cut nearly in half under an early version of President Donald Trump's budget proposal to Congress, a move that would terminate billions of dollars worth of ongoing and future missions, according to two individuals with direct knowledge of the administration's plan. | ||
| It says the budget plan sent to NASA by the Office of Management and Budget would give NASA science mission Dectorit $3.9 billion down from its current budget of about $7.3 billion according to the individuals. | ||
| The budget proposal, though not yet formally submitted to Congress, would eviscerate a long list of planetary and astronomical missions, including the next major NASA space telescope and the agency's goal of bringing samples of Mars back to Earth to search for signs of ancient life. | ||
| Says NASA's astrophysicist budget, astrophysics budget could take a huge hit, dropping from about $1.5 billion to $487 million. | ||
| Planetary sciences would see a drop from $2.7 billion to $1.9 billion. | ||
| Earth science would drop from 2.2 billion to 1 point, just a little over 1.3 billion. | ||
| Says the Hubble and Webb Space Telescopes, celebrated for their long list of discoveries, as well as stunning images of the universe, would remain supported under the proposal. | ||
| However, no other telescope would be funded. | ||
| It says that the budget draft, known as a pass-back, is one step in the process by which the president sends Congress a 22000, or I'm sorry, a 2026 fiscal budget request. | ||
| Congress has the power of the purse and can rescue programs targeted for termination by the White House. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| Let's talk with Linda in Illinois, line for Democrats. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Linda. | |
| Hi. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Where I think we could make some cuts is in corporate welfare. | ||
| So if we have to show, I mean, many corporations have enjoyed reductions in their taxable amount, but I don't think that they should get additional subsidies and different types of just help in ways that are paid with taxpayer dollars when they're showing that they have corporate profits in excess of certain sums. | ||
| That was Linda in Illinois. | ||
| Rob in Maplewood, Minnesota, line for Republicans. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Rob. | |
| Tammy. | ||
| Hi, Tammy. | ||
| Yeah, these Democrats don't understand that these tax cuts benefit all of us. | ||
| They don't just benefit the wealthy. | ||
| They benefit the middle class and lower class people as well. | ||
| And if they could just let Trump do his job, just let him do his job. | ||
| He's only in for four years. | ||
| Give him a chance to see what he can do in the next couple of years. | ||
| And I guarantee you, the gas prices will drop like a rock as soon as all these tariffs are taken care of. | ||
| We'll see gas below $2 a gallon by the end of his fourth year, I believe. | ||
| If the Democrats don't get the midterms, if the Democrats can stay out of the way and just let Trump do his job, we will be fine in four years for sure. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Rob, can I ask you a question? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| The budget bill that the blueprint that the House passed this week passed the Senate last weekend. | ||
| It is endorsed by President Trump. | ||
| So he wants cuts to be made. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Where do you think cuts could be made? | |
| Cuts could be made. | ||
| Let's see. | ||
| There's so many different places where they could be cut. | ||
| I'm glad they got rid of the climate hoax thing. | ||
| I just can't think of anything off the top of my head right now where they can make cuts. | ||
| That was Rob in Minnesota. | ||
| Let's go to Woody in Kentucky, line for independence. | ||
| Hi, Woody. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| Looking good today. | ||
| Hey, on a Kentucky-Virginia border, there was a lawyer and a judge. | ||
| They would line up in the morning. | ||
| These people would get forget their disability, and a judge would go through a thousand of them a day. | ||
| That's if they figured this out. | ||
| 10 years, these people have done this. | ||
| $500 million in fraud, taxpayer money. | ||
| That's one thing. | ||
| All these people need to be cut off that shouldn't be on it. | ||
| Then you got these people that go in the military for about a year or two, come back and getting a disability check. | ||
| That needs to be stopped. | ||
| I hope they're looking into it. | ||
| That was Woody in Kentucky. | ||
| Let's talk with Michelle in Montgomery, Alabama, line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Michelle. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I've been listening to all the callers, and it's just apparent that cutting the Department of Education. | ||
| I don't know if that is a bad thing, but people are not educated and they do not think critically. | ||
| We talk about, I hear them praising Doge for the waste, fraud, and abuse, but they haven't presented anything to show where is the fraud, who did it, where's the waste, where's the abuse? | ||
| So, the question is: the cuts definitely need to cut our military, but to see that they want to increase the military by $1 trillion, then why are they increasing the military is the question. | ||
| So, if you cut Medicaid, people who need their callosophy bags, medical supplies, and all of such, which we won't see until next year anyway. | ||
| So, all of this is the grand setup for the biggest appointment next year. | ||
| But the immediate cut can be to the politicians' salary, the ones that create these legislations and laws to take away the essentials of the American people. | ||
| For example, Christy Noam is parading around the country in these military outfits, nails done, hair done. | ||
| That's our taxpayer dollars. | ||
| So, we would rather give her the money to dress up than to feed kids in Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama. | ||
| I mean, how cool some of the American people are. | ||
| And because they don't read, they don't understand, they let people dictate to them what should have been happening with no receipts is telling. | ||
| So, cut the military, leave the essentials for the people who need it. | ||
| People are hungry. | ||
| We have homelessness, it's not going away, and there is no talk about making sure that we can take care of the American people. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That is Michelle in Alabama. | ||
| It was Thursday after that House vote that Representative George Vladimir of Democrat of New York spoke to his GOP counterparts and warned of cuts to programs. | ||
| Here's that clip. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| House Republicans just passed their budget plan, President Trump's big, beautiful bill. | ||
| Again, the first version didn't cut enough from critical programs like Medicaid and SNAP. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This budget is a direct attack on the working and middle classes, all while handling more than $7 trillion in tax breaks for billionaires. | |
| Over 196,000 residents in my district are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage, including 73,000 children and 27,000 seniors in one district. | ||
| 74,000 people who count on SNAP may not be able to put food on the table. | ||
| People who are covered through the Affordable Care Act will see premiums rise by an average of almost $3,000 a year. | ||
| This is what President Trump called beautiful. | ||
| It's anything but. | ||
| This budget won't lower costs. | ||
| Coupled with the President's thoughtless tariff policies will make life more expensive for our neighbors. | ||
| We're making a B-line to a MAGA recession and perhaps a MAGA depression. | ||
| This is reverse Robin Hood, stealing from the lower and middle classes to benefit the wealthiest gentleman's time American. | ||
| Just about 10 minutes left in this first hour asking what cuts you would make to the federal budget. | ||
| And this text coming in from Rob in Huntington, West Virginia, it says he's an independent. | ||
| It says, sorry, I know people disbelieve what they want to believe, but the math just doesn't work. | ||
| Cuts to the part of the budget considered discretionary will only remove a few drops out of the bucket of debt. | ||
| Taxes need to be increased substantially on the wealth and possibly a little bit on everybody else. | ||
| Even with tax increases, the wealthy can have a standard of living far in excess. | ||
| Middle and lower class wage earners. | ||
| The single biggest contribution to the debt has been Republican tax cuts, and they want to do more tax cuts. | ||
| Let's talk with Jeff in Maryland, lying for independence. | ||
| Hi, Jeff. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Doing well, Jeff. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I would start with the discretionary cuts on the military. | |
| We really need to take a look at the military spending. | ||
| And across the board, I agree with Robert out of California that we need to lay everything out and come in with a bipartisan approach. | ||
| Because right now, we're being conf 1.0 when he first came into office. | ||
| I was receiving a tax refund. | ||
| When that tax cut that he made the first time around, I lost my tax refund. | ||
| It went to the top 1%. | ||
| This time around, 2.0, it's the same okie-doke. | ||
| This guy is a con artist, straight out of New York, and he's not bringing in $2 billion a day off of these tariffs. | ||
| So now, America, stop and think. | ||
| This con artist is conning you. | ||
| So now he has tariffs, which is money taxed against the consumer. | ||
| The money stays with those countries. | ||
| It does not trickle into the treasury as he's telling you. | ||
| That's a con job. | ||
| So those tariffs raise the prices to the consumers. | ||
| The consumers absorbed it. | ||
| And then now you're compounding this with a tax cut for the rich, which will contribute $6 trillion to the deficit. | ||
| And the Congressional Budget Office hasn't even assessed it. | ||
| But when the assessment comes through, it's going to add $20 trillion to the budget. | ||
| $20 trillion, America, wake up. | ||
| We're already at $36 trillion. | ||
| That's $56 trillion that you're passing on to your kids and grandkids. | ||
| America, wake up. | ||
| Time is running out. | ||
| Now it's Jeff and Marilyn Carroll in New Jersey, line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Carol. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| I was just watching your clip with the speaker, Mike Johnson, and he's talking about Medicaid and getting able-bodied men, giving them a work requirement. | ||
| Well, all well and good. | ||
| However, to set that program up, that's going to cost money. | ||
| That's going, you're going to have to pay people to run that kind of thing. | ||
| It's not like they're going to be able to find jobs for these people. | ||
| They're talking about a work requirement where they go in and they sit in, watch films, learn how to write a resume, all of that. | ||
| I've dealt with stuff like that because I've worked in it. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Secondly, when talking about Medicaid cuts, yes, the president has already said that they're not going to be cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, nor should they be. | ||
| However, if they concentrated on the fraud and where the rich people, these companies, medical professionals buy all of this equipment, maybe they can find some savings there. | ||
| And that's my. | ||
| Oh, and one other thing, make these people in the legislature pay more for their health care. | ||
| They have ridiculous packages that some of us out here wish we could have. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That is Carol in New Jersey. | ||
| Rick in Colorado, line for Republicans. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Rick. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I think if I was in government, I would look at the nonprofit organization. | ||
| Right now, there are 3.3 trillion tax-exempt economy. | ||
| And in that, there's 1.8 million organizations that are getting about 15% of the GDP. | ||
| And it's like if you cut a lot of them people, there's so many of them that are just skimming off the public. | ||
| You know, it's crazy. | ||
| That's where I would really look at cuts. | ||
| That's like 15% of our budget goes to nonprofits. | ||
| Rick, are you suggesting that they change the tax policy and no longer make them tax exempt? | ||
| Well, I think you, first of all, you'd have to go in and cut about half of them out of there because it's nonsense. | ||
| Most of them are collecting, most of them would fail without government backing. | ||
| So there's so many of them programs that are just so biased to one side or the other that they're really, they're not making it on their own. | ||
| They're making it only by the taxpayer dollar. | ||
| That was Rick in Colorado. | ||
| Jim in Indiana, line for independence. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Jim. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I didn't want to talk about the revenue side. | ||
| That guy that brought up the not-for-profits. | ||
| I see that as the revenue side. | ||
| This segment here is cuts. | ||
| I appreciate what he's saying. | ||
| But we should look at Congress first, and Congress should be paid at the median income of the district that they represent. | ||
| Our representatives shouldn't be in the top 5% of the districts they represent. | ||
| That's wrong. | ||
| At that U.S. House, they get a million dollars per person to run their office. | ||
| Let's look at cutting that. | ||
| Let's make these people of the people. | ||
| There also have been studies by the Pentagon that says we have military bases that aren't used, that aren't adding any value. | ||
| And these are the easy kind of things that we don't need them. | ||
| We've studied them. | ||
| We've said we don't. | ||
| These are the plays of the cut spending, but this federal budget thing is a revenue and cut kind of scheme. | ||
| It's not going to work. | ||
| Cuts alone won't work, and adding taxes won't work. | ||
| And we need to get creative on the revenue side. | ||
| Taxes shouldn't be the only way we look at getting revenue for the government. | ||
| That's all I got. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Jim in Indiana. | ||
| Lester, Washington, D.C., line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Lester. | ||
| Yeah, how are you doing? | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Look, I want to say this. | ||
| If we had to cut, if I had to cut, it certainly would be the Pentagon, the military budget. | ||
| I mean, many people have talked about the boondoggy of the Pentagon, the trillions, you know, the billions and the trillions. | ||
| That's one thing that needs to be cut. | ||
| Secondly, a lot of your callers, I don't know. | ||
| The gentleman stated, some of these people need to wake up. | ||
| This is not 1950. | ||
| It's not the first century. | ||
| This is the 21st century. | ||
| And we have, and the country is 400, I believe, 400 million. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| And so this, you know, so that brings on complexity of a budget, period. | ||
| Also, too, you know, I mean, some of these people failed to realize that we, at one point, we continued to give Israel between six to seven million dollars. | ||
| I believe that's a figure. | ||
| It goes directly to a forever war. | ||
| So, you know, also, too, I don't know. | ||
| Some of your people that call it, I don't know, like Kentucky, Alabama, all these folks, they keep eating, they're deluding themselves. | ||
| Donald Trump is, in fact, a liar. | ||
| And the Republicans, as I know it, we start getting deficits, deficits, national debt, right around the Reagan administration. | ||
| And as one gentleman pointed out, Clinton came in, pretty much provided a surplus. | ||
| Obama came in, pretty much provided a surplus. | ||
| The Republicans always talk about fiscal responsibility, but they never, the history shows, they never balance the budget. | ||
| They do what they're doing now: they give themselves a tax cut. | ||
| They give themselves a tax cut. | ||
| And at the end of the day, the middle and working class people suffer. | ||
| So I don't know where these people coming from, Kentucky, when they make that $800 billion cut in Medicaid, it's going to affect Kentucky. | ||
| It's going to affect Alabama. | ||
| It's going to affect Mississippi. | ||
| And those three states are the poorest states in the Union. | ||
| But somehow these folks keep calling up, deluding themselves. | ||
| I don't know if it's just, if they're just, if they own something, if they don't understand, they don't understand that Donald Trump. | ||
| I got your point, Lester. | ||
| We'll go to William in Tennessee, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, William. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you? | |
| I've been a lifelong Republican, and I actually have studied the military and the economy and all these things that people are talking about. | ||
| We need to stop taxing anybody under $2 million. | ||
| That will create a middle class that can stand up to the ultra-wealthy, like the Rothschilds that most people don't even know exists. | ||
| And we need to tax graduating up, not graduating down. | ||
| Somebody that has a billion dollars that's plundering, like George Soros and Tom Stryker, should be taxed at 90%. | ||
| They'll still have $100 million out of their billion-dollar co-first. | ||
| We need to have a robust business community. | ||
| And the way to do that is with the Small Business Administration. | ||
| We need a court system to go after plunder. | ||
| And there's a lot of it. | ||
| Let's talk with Brent in Strattonville, Pennsylvania, line for independence. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Brent. | |
| Yeah, and just as a reality check to all the people, you can't have a social, like a society that expects the benefit of a socialist country if you're a republic. | ||
| If you're in France or another country, the standard income tax on that individual is between 25 and 30 percent. | ||
| The American people will never stand for that. | ||
| So there isn't a way to balance the budget with the current benefits that we offer the people. | ||
| The only possible way to balance the budget would be to freeze all federal spending, only allow the government to reduce cost and spending to any program, and then allow the growth of the economy to eventually catch the budget. | ||
| But as for balancing it with the total packages that we give everybody, it just won't work. | ||
| That was Brent in Pennsylvania. | ||
| Last call for this first hour of today's program. | ||
| Next on Washington Journal, Alex Batanka of the Middle East Institute will join us to discuss the state of U.S.-Iran relations as the two sides begin high-stakes talks today over Tehran's nuclear weapon program. | ||
| And later, reporter Rachel Frasen of The Hill will discuss the Trump administration's latest energy and environment policy actions. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
American History TV, exploring the people and events that tell the American story. | |
| This weekend, the 2024 Lincoln Forum held in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, authors and historians discuss Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War with presentations on Canada's role in the war, African-American reactions to Lincoln's death, and soldiers' motivations to fight. | ||
| Watch our American History TV series First 100 Days as we look at the start of presidential terms. | ||
| This week, we focus on the early months of President Donald Trump's first term in 2017, including the withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement and construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico. | ||
| And on lectures in history, Santa Clara University history professor Sonia Gomez on the intimate relationships between people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds that occurred in Hawaii and Japan during and immediately after World War II. | ||
| Exploring the American story, watch American History TV every weekend and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/slash history. | ||
| Book TV, every Sunday on C-SPAN 2, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. | ||
| Here's a look at what's coming up this weekend. | ||
| At 7 p.m. Eastern, journalist Michael Wolf provides his behind-the-scenes look at President Trump's 2024 re-election with his book, All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America. | ||
| And then at 8 p.m. Eastern, Bard College history professor Sean McMeekin talks about his book, To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism, which was selected as the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's 2025 Conservative Book of the Year. | ||
| And at 9 p.m. Eastern, the New York Times's Annie Carney and Luke Broadwater, authors of Madhouse, chronicle the key events of the 118th Congress and the 2024 presidential election. | ||
| Then at 10 p.m. Eastern on Afterwards, Oklahoma Republican Senator James Langford speaks about his fate, the challenges the country faces, and what he believes needs to happen to improve the country in his book, Turnaround: America's Revival. | ||
| He's interviewed by Wall Street Journal congressional reporter Siobhan Hughes. | ||
| Watch Book TV every Sunday on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Joining us now to discuss U.S.-Iran nuclear talks is Alex Batanka. | ||
| He is a senior fellow with the Middle East Institute. | ||
| Alex, thank you so much for being with us this morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Tommy. | |
| It's a pleasure to be with you. | ||
| Why don't we start with your organization? | ||
| Tell us about the Middle East Institute, the mission, and also how you're funded. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| So the Middle East Institute's been around just under 80 years now. | ||
| In fact, a year after the end of the Second World War, a number of American diplomats returned to the United States, principally George Kemp Kaiser and Christian Herder, who later actually became Secretary of State under President Eisenhower. | ||
| And they came back after the Second World War with a sort of a desire to teach the United States and the people of this country more about this place called the Middle East over there, because it was already emerging as a important source of energy, which is true to this day, an important strategic location on a world map, which is true today, and plenty of business opportunities, which probably wasn't so much true back in 1946, but it's certainly the case today. | ||
| This is a part of the world that we often consider to be sort of full of conflict and not much good news coming out of it. | ||
| But in fact, some of the richest countries on the planet are located in the Middle East. | ||
| And they're interested in passing their message also to the United States. | ||
| So, in terms of what we do, we're a bridge between the United States and the Middle East. | ||
| Tammy, we bring folks from the Middle East here to the United States to be in Americans. | ||
| We take Americans to the Middle East to meet folks from there, whether it's educational policymakers, and we do a lot in the art scene, art. | ||
| And folks who are interested can come and visit our wonderful gallery downtown Washington, D.C., where they can see Middle Eastern art. | ||
| And final point on the question of funding: it's a variety of sources. | ||
| We get U.S. government grants, private grants, companies, foreign governments, including governments in the region, have supported us. | ||
| And, you know, myself, just to give you an example, I'm working on a book right now on Iran's Arab strategy. | ||
| And I was lucky to get a funding, a grant from a private American institution that cares about that topic and wants Americans to know more about what Iran wants in its foreign policy kind of pursuits in the region. | ||
| So without being long-winded, I hope that gave you a sense of who we are and what we're trying to do. | ||
| We appreciate that, Alex. | ||
| And we are talking about Iran today, specifically their nuclear program. | ||
| This headline from the Associated Press: Iran says, indirect talks begin with a U.S. envoy over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. | ||
| Those are happening today in Oman. | ||
| How big of a deal are these talks? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Look, it's a pretty big deal. | |
| I don't know what's going to happen in terms of these initial talks, but it's a big deal. | ||
| You know, President Trump pulled out of the Iranian nuclear deal of 2015 back in May of 2018. | ||
| Now, the Trump administration 1.0 was not able to do anything on that issue. | ||
| Basically, all kinds of contacts were lost. | ||
| The Biden administration came in. | ||
| They said that they were interested in theory to see if they could revive the JCPO of 2015, but there was no trust. | ||
| There was no trust on the part of Iran in the United States. | ||
| And the Biden administration, President Biden himself, really didn't want to invest much time and energy in this. | ||
| So nothing happened during the four years of the Biden administration. | ||
| So these talks in Moscow at Oman are actually the highest levels of talks happening in seven years on a very important issue that could have consequences for U.S. national interest in the Middle East and beyond. | ||
| So they're pretty significant. | ||
| But again, we don't know what's going to come out of them. | ||
| But the fact that there is now a desire to talk in itself is really important. | ||
| And the Trump administration has touted the talks as direct. | ||
| The Iranian leaders have referred to them as indirect. | ||
| That's some of the language that we're also hearing in reports. | ||
| Why is there a disagreement over what the talks are, what form the talks are taking, and ultimately, does it matter? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, let me take the last part of that question. | |
| Ultimately, it doesn't really matter because if there is a will to push this forward, what we call it, it doesn't really matter. | ||
| Where there's a disagreement in terms of direct, indirect, it's a question of style. | ||
| And we all know President Trump, he likes to entertain for the TV cameras. | ||
| He wants to be able to say, I got you a good deal here. | ||
| Everybody should be happy. | ||
| The Iranians, they come from a very different political culture. | ||
| And this is a regime, particularly the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has invested pretty much his entire political career demonizing the United States. | ||
| For him to overnight suddenly be seen as shaking hands or his people shaking hands with Americans, it's a big thing for them. | ||
| It's not small, particularly when they're not even sure if the Trump administration is serious about a deal. | ||
| And we all know what happened to leaders who might get it wrong in terms of the posturing and the optics. | ||
| I think the Iranians took a lot of attention to what happened to the Ukrainian leader, Vladimir Zelensky, in the White House. | ||
| So this issue of optics does matter, but essentially what today's meeting in Oman is about is to set the stage. | ||
| Both sides want to find out what the bottom line on the other side is. | ||
| For example, if the United States says to Iran, we want you to get rid of your entire nuclear program entirely, that's the end of the conversation, I think. | ||
| That's when the Iranians will pack up and go back to Tehran. | ||
| If the United States says, you can have your civil nuclear program, we just don't want to see an Iranian nuclear bomb. | ||
| There, you have the substance for a conversation and petitioning agreement. | ||
| Our guest for the next 35 minutes or so is Alex Petenka. | ||
| He's a senior fellow with the Middle East Institute. | ||
| Our discussion is on the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks. | ||
| If you have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now the lines, Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| Alex, these, as you mentioned, the talks are just starting today. | ||
| It's been a very long time since they have been in a room together. | ||
| Who is leading these negotiations? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So on the U.S. side is Stephen Witkoff, someone that President Trump obviously has a lot of faith in. | |
| And he's someone who, as we know, has multiple files that he's pursuing simultaneously. | ||
| So he's the man for bringing peace in Ukraine. | ||
| Witkoff is the man who's going to bring peace to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the war in Gaza, and now the Iran-profiled. | ||
| So pretty significant amount of workload. | ||
| I don't know if anybody can envy Stephen Witkoff, but here's the thing about Witkoff that I think the Iranians are paying a lot of attention to. | ||
| He's a direct line to President Trump. | ||
| And that's something I think the Iranians like. | ||
| They don't want to go through all that big, multi-layered American bureaucracy to convey a message to a president who clearly is so powerful, who controls pretty much all levels of power in this country at executive level. | ||
| He's got a Republican-controlled Congress that is not going to say no to him. | ||
| And then they're in American public opinion that really wouldn't want to get involved in another war in the Middle East. | ||
| So for these reasons, I think the Iranian side, they are of the belief that it's so important to get to President Trump as closely as possible and see if they can cut a deal with him, the man, the person, because they don't think he comes from a grand strategy of sorts. | ||
| He doesn't have those sort of perhaps political sort of, you know, baggage that comes with someone who seemed like Joe Biden, who was in the U.S. politics for 50 plus years. | ||
| On the Iranian side, Tammy, the person who is in Moscow is a man by the name of Abbas Adof Chi. | ||
| He's the Iranian foreign minister. | ||
| He was deputy foreign minister last time Ira signed a nuclear deal in 2015. | ||
| He comes from a security background, so he's not exactly an independent player. | ||
| The good thing about him, I guess, is his views can be taken to represent the consensus views of the entire regime in Tehran, which means if they put something on the table, they're likely to deliver. | ||
| He's not going to be misleading the American side. | ||
| And Alex, we'll get to calls here in just a second. | ||
| But do you know when it sounds like talks are happening right now? | ||
| Do we know how long they are expected to meet? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have no idea, Tammy. | |
| I was just in Oman a few weeks ago. | ||
| I've met the Omanis who are probably going to be doing all this back and forth. | ||
| Oman is a country that has a rich history of mediation going back to the 1990s. | ||
| In fact, they did some mediation during the Iran-Iraq war in the 80s. | ||
| They're trusted, they're respected in the region. | ||
| The Iranians particularly like the fact that the Omanis are not in the show business side of things. | ||
| They do things quietly. | ||
| They care about the outcome, not being praised for what they're doing. | ||
| So I'm sure Oman will do whatever it can because Oman is not just a good friend of the United States. | ||
| They also recognize that Iran is their large neighbor and Iran's not going to go anywhere. | ||
| Iran's been there 5,000 years, going to be there another 5,000 years. | ||
| So Oman and a lot of these countries in the region are really interested in seeing U.S.-Iran figuring something out because they don't want to end up being frontline states. | ||
| Makes a lot of sense from their perspective. | ||
| But again, Tammy, end of the day, we have to see if what U.S. and Iran come to the table with in terms of what they expect from the other side as far as concessions are concerned is something that would work for both of them. | ||
| I'm sure the Omanis will try and push this process forward, create confidence, because that's lacking. | ||
| But at the very minimum, if there is an agreement to meet again, that in itself is a success because the first stage is to set the framework. | ||
| What are the conditions for real talks to begin? | ||
| That's what we have to look for today. | ||
| We have callers waiting to talk with you. | ||
| We will start with Neil in Sackett Harbor, New York, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Neil. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| It's my opinion that nothing will be done or resolved in the Middle East that doesn't get blessed by the Israeli lobby. | ||
| The power of the media outlets that they own, newspapers, embedded in the current administration, we don't have, it's almost blasphemy to take the positions of the Palestinians or anything. | ||
| They silence the people at the universities up and down the line. | ||
| Also, we in America want to forget where the issues began between Iran and the United States. | ||
| The seven sisters, the big oil companies, when the CIA and the Dulles brothers went in and overthrew Mossadegh and put the Shah in place, I can't understand why we can't look at historical facts to see what likes these fuses. | ||
| And it continues to this day. | ||
| I read a book. | ||
| I don't want to go on too much here, but I read a book maybe 10 or 12 years ago called The Israeli Lobby. | ||
| And they were written by two Jewish authors. | ||
| The book was. | ||
| And at that time, they said that 83 senators, they could get, the Israeli lobby could get 83 senators to vote any way they wanted on any issue that they wanted. | ||
| Perhaps you could speak to some of my points. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Well, listen, thank you so much. | ||
| I mean, you raise a lot of important questions there. | ||
| I'll give it my best shot. | ||
| Look, on the Israel issue, again, but I'm getting into the powers of the pro-Israel organizations. | ||
| Clearly, there are many interest groups in the United States that do care about this relationship. | ||
| Whether we agree or disagree, the fact is, as you pointed out, they have influence. | ||
| Certainly, members of Congress listen to the concerns and the interest of Israel. | ||
| Is it out of balance? | ||
| Again, we can debate that, not really for Iran watcher like myself to get into. | ||
| I'm much more focused on Iran. | ||
| And on that issue, the questions that I have to deal with daily is, will Israel go out alone and take out Iran's nuclear sites and so forth. | ||
| And my line of sort of answering that is Israel has always been better off being together with the United States on this issue than going alone. | ||
| I don't think, as an analyst, I'm not a military analyst. | ||
| I'm more on the policy side, but I haven't seen the evidence to suggest that Israel can finish the job, if you will, alone. | ||
| And I don't think President Trump or frankly, President Biden or anyone post-Iraq would look lightly at the idea of entering into a new Middle Eastern conflict. | ||
| So bottom line is Israel is better off to see and hope that they can encourage the United States, this administration, to get some kind of a deal that might just put the brakes on Iran's nuclear program. | ||
| But I think if the Israelis come in and expect dismantlement of the Iranian nuclear program entirely, and there was some talk in this town when Prime Minister Netanyahu was visiting Washington, D.C., and President Trump made it very clear that, you know, if there is war, Israel, you will take the lead. | ||
| That's the same as saying we might not be that heavily involved. | ||
| And Israel alone, as I said, I'm not sure they can finish the job. | ||
| I'm not sure if they want to confront Iran alone. | ||
| And that's a big challenge for them. | ||
| But I understand, I have all the sympathy in the world where Israel is coming from in terms of fearing Iran. | ||
| This is a regime that since 1979 has basically decided to pick this issue and want to confront Israel. | ||
| Again, we shouldn't forget who started this fight. | ||
| Before 1979, Iran and Israel were partners in many ways. | ||
| And speaking of history, which you point out, it's really important. | ||
| I couldn't agree with you more. | ||
| But here's my take on that right now. | ||
| The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araki, posted an opinion piece in the Washington Post last week. | ||
| And what was really striking was compared to in the past, where the Iranians would often talk about how the United States had intervened in 1953 and removed the Democratic elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadev or allegedly supported Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war and so on. | ||
| So talking about all the bad things that they think the U.S. did to Iran over the decades. | ||
| None of that appeared in that opinion piece. | ||
| It was all about looking ahead. | ||
| It was talking about essentially trying to endear themselves to the man, Donald J. Trump, and saying, you can be a peacemaker. | ||
| And by the way, by appealing to his commercial sense and saying, if Iran opens up, there are trillions of dollars that American companies can come in and compete for in terms of investment. | ||
| So the Iranians don't have the luxury of relitigating the past at this point because Iran is in another good place. | ||
| They're sitting on top of an extremely angry population that hates the regime, frankly. | ||
| And I put it very crudely, but that's what it is. | ||
| do not like their regime. | ||
| So the regime is over the history at this point. | ||
| They might still privately want to talk about it, but at this point they need to save their economy and survival of the regime is at stake. | ||
| So I don't think they're going to be talking to Stephen Witkoff about the 1953 coup or the Dulles brothers. | ||
| They're looking ahead and what can be done to preserve their economy because that's what they need to do to preserve their regime. | ||
| Let's talk with Sankofa in Georgia Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Sankofa. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning and good morning, Alex. | |
| I believe that Iran, I don't believe that Iran is our enemy. | ||
| I think that we could actually have a good relationship with Iran if we do not allow Israel to keep sabotaging. | ||
| It is Israel that has a problem with Iran and they have a problem with Iran because Iran supports the Palestinians, which they should, because it's correct. | ||
| What Israel is doing to the Palestinians is wrong. | ||
| It's inhumane. | ||
| It's disgusting. | ||
| And as far as whether the Iranian people like their government, look, I live in the United States. | ||
| I can't stay in my government a lot of times. | ||
| But it's not about that. | ||
| But we actually could forge a really good relationship if we would be honest and not allow Israel to frame our foreign policy with them. | ||
| We could do that, and I believe that. | ||
| Well, again, thank you for the question. | ||
| Some of the questions today are taking me out of my comfort zone because that's not what I do daily. | ||
| But let me try and give it my best shot. | ||
| Look, I could actually imagine a situation where you can have all those things you just mentioned in terms of an Iran and the United States that go back to having cooperation relations because that serves both Iran and the United States. | ||
| It is not in the American interest to have Iran become a servant of the Chinese, a gas station for the Chinese, providing cheap gas to China, which is what Iran does today, or being a servant of Vladimir Putin of Russia. | ||
| Iran is a country the size of Alaska, population of 90 million people. | ||
| It's an important piece of real estate. | ||
| In this new day and age, where the world is maybe dividing into two, where U.S. on one side and China on the other, it makes sense to fight for that piece of land called Iran, at least not have them as enemies or do the bidding of the Chinese and the Russians. | ||
| So I could see that, and I totally agree with that point that it can be a relationship that can be overhauled, normalized, if you will. | ||
| But at the same time, that doesn't mean the United States needs to throw Israel under the bus. | ||
| Israel being an ally of the U.S. for so long. | ||
| And I know it's a complicated partnership. | ||
| And a lot of people have questions about some of the Israeli policies, including the treatment of the Palestinians. | ||
| And I agree, Israel can treat the Palestinians certainly in a much better humane way than some of the things that we have seen over the last year and a half. | ||
| But then again, if you're sitting in Israel and October 7th happened to you, there don't have the luxury of space to sit there and think what they could do differently. | ||
| They're fighting for their lives essentially as a small state that Israel is. | ||
| But here's my point. | ||
| Iran and Israel don't really have a war. | ||
| There is no territorial dispute. | ||
| There's no history of fighting between Iran and Israel other than the last 46 years. | ||
| And what is 46 years when you think about the history of the Persians, the Iranians, and the Jews that go back 2,700 years, right? | ||
| I mean, the Persian Cyrus the Great, he's one of the few Gentiles mentioned in the Old Testament. | ||
| There's a long, rich history of friendship between the Jewish people and the people of Iran. | ||
| This Iranian regime, since 1979, has decided to turn it into an ideal ideological issue. | ||
| They want to go after Israel, to provide arms and so forth to groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. | ||
| Let's just say that's a fine noble cause. | ||
| Let's just say that's the way to do it to defend the Palestinians against the policies of Israel. | ||
| But as we've seen over the last year and a half, it's not delivering results. | ||
| There is no armed sort of solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. | ||
| So Iran would be better off joining mainstream Muslim countries like the United Arab Emirates or the Saudis and others and force Israel from a political point of view to change its policies and provide more for the rights of the Palestinians so they can have a shot at life too. | ||
| So I think, you know, again, I can see a situation where you can all those things, but it takes some real policy adjustments, in my view, and you might disagree, but most of that adjustment needs to be done in Tehran. | ||
| They need to make some changes. | ||
| But absolutely, Israel needs to make a policy difference. | ||
| And I also agree with this that, you know, the Israelis shouldn't dictate what America's policy on Iran should be. | ||
| That I totally agree with. | ||
| In fact, no country should dictate to the United States what American foreign policy should be. | ||
| But we have to remember this is a close relationship between the two countries. | ||
| There's a lot of political investments made in the U.S. by pro-Israel organizations over decades. | ||
| And, you know, they do have a say, but that doesn't necessarily mean war is inevitable and America will go to war for the sake of Israel. | ||
| I don't see that happening. | ||
| Alex, this week, President Trump spoke about the negotiations and Iran's nuclear program. | ||
| I want to play a clip and then we'll get your reaction on the other side. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You said the other day that if they do not agree to a potential nuclear deal, that it would be very dangerous for them. | |
| What's specific? | ||
| Well, they can't have a nuclear weapon. | ||
| Did you mean military action, though, if they don't agree? | ||
| Oh, if necessary? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| Do you have a deadline for these talks? | ||
| I do. | ||
| You're talking about with Iran? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Do you have something definitive this weekend, or do you see this as a sort of a process to start? | ||
| Do you have a timeline? | ||
| We have a little time, but we don't have much time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Where does it start in the next one? | |
| Because we're not going to let them have a nuclear weapon. | ||
| And we're going to let them thrive. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I want them to thrive. | |
| I want Iran to be great. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The only thing they can't have is a nuclear weapon. | |
| They understand that. | ||
| You know, the people are so incredible in Iran, and they're so smart. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They're very smart people. | |
| And, you know, they're in a rough situation, rough regime. | ||
| But they understand, and the leaders understand. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I'm not asking, I'm not asking for much. | |
| I just, I don't, they can't have a nuclear weapon. | ||
| Yeah, if it requires military, we're going to have military. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Israel will obviously be very much involved in that. | |
| He'll be the leader of that. | ||
| Alex, your reaction to President Trump floating the idea of military action as a way to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. | ||
| And also, how close is the country to nuclear capabilities? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Look, in terms of what the president just said, he didn't say anything that we haven't heard from successive American presidents going back to George W. Bush. | |
| Since this Iranian nuclear program sort of was revealed to the world, if you will, back in 2002, from George Bush to Barack Obama to Trump 1 to Biden, everybody's kept the military option on the table. | ||
| We just, you know, listen more carefully when it's President Trump that speaks because he speaks the language he does. | ||
| It's much more black and white, and we sort of go, okay, is he threatening with war? | ||
| In fact, all American presidents have threatened Iran with war, going back, as I said, 20 plus years. | ||
| Look, I don't think this president wants to go to war in the Middle East. | ||
| We all know his political history. | ||
| Whether people think he's the great negotiator or not, the thing is that he's constantly, throughout the decade, said these wars in the Middle East aren't good for the United States. | ||
| And again, he kind of said that again in the clip where he was saying the Israelis are, he didn't say they're on their own, but he didn't say America will go to fight Iran for the sake of Israel. | ||
| So I think that's a very clear distinction he just made. | ||
| And I don't think the visit last week by Prime Minister Netanyahu was one that was really a win for the Israeli prime minister. | ||
| So look, I think if his bottom line, if President Trump's bottom line is no Iranian nuclear weapon, that's no different from his predecessors. | ||
| And that's exactly why the Iranians are meeting Witkoff in Oman because they think if that is his bottom line, well, guess what Iran's bottom line is? | ||
| Their supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued a religious fatwa. | ||
| And I know people might take these things seriously or not, but at least on paper, they're saying atomic weapons are against their religion, right? | ||
| So right here, America doesn't want Iran to have an atomic weapon. | ||
| Iran's leader says it's against our religion anyway. | ||
| Well, why don't you have an agreement that both sides can live with? | ||
| That obviously means you've got to be able to verify it. | ||
| You can't take Iran's word for it. | ||
| And the Iranians will say in return, what do they want? | ||
| They want sanctions being lifted. | ||
| And they're saying, don't just tell us you're going to lift the sanctions. | ||
| Actually lift the sanctions so we can see some of that money flowing back into their economy so they can again preserve their regime, which is their number one priority. | ||
| We have about 15 minutes left with Alex Natanka, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and also author of the book, The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran, the United States, foreign policy, and political rivalry since 1979. | ||
| Let's hear from Jim in Tucker, Georgia, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Jim. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning, Tammy. | |
| Good morning, Alex. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| You know, there's so much to talk about and ask you about, Alex, about the Iranian culture and everything. | ||
| You know, I'm kind of glad to hear Trump say that there's a foundation, you know, there's potential for friendship with the Iranian people. | ||
| But, you know, I look back at the history of the United States and I look back at what Alan Dulles did with the coup there and Iran and all the other stuff that guy did was just down in Central America so that now we have all that issue with the southern border. | ||
| And so, you know, the Republicans messed all that up. | ||
| So, you know, they need to clean it up. | ||
| That's one thing. | ||
| But the culture of Iran is just so fascinating. | ||
| You know, it's not Arab, right? | ||
| So it's more like, oh, and that the history of that biblical leader, you mentioned Cyrus, not him, but Nebuchadnezzar. | ||
| I mean, that is just such a fascinating story. | ||
| And I understand he was Persian. | ||
| So, you know, that's just a really, really fascinating story. | ||
| And so I'm really kind of glad to hear that there's some potential for, you know, having a normal relationship with Iran. | ||
| And I, you know, again, I hear all these rabid Republicans ranting about, you know, oh, we gave the, we gave the money back to the Iranians, but it was, you know, it was the Iranians' money to begin with. | ||
| So I don't know what they're, what, you know, I don't know why they can't understand that. | ||
| Jim, that's a lot for Alex to unpack there. | ||
| We'll give him a chance. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, no, thank you so much. | |
| No, I just want to, that was wonderful, a lot of information there and different places we can go with it. | ||
| But let me just say this, obviously, in this relationship, since, no, people know from 1941 to 1979, Iran is arguably America's best friend in the Middle East. | ||
| Right? | ||
| Iran is the place where, you know, by the time the revolutions happen, the revolution happens in 1979, 50,000 Americans and their families live in Iran. | ||
| There are very strong commercial ties between the countries. | ||
| Iranian students, people will remember, Iranians in America in the 70s were the largest foreign group of students studying in this country. | ||
| So the relationship between U.S. and Iran really changes for the worse after 79. | ||
| And, you know, again, we all remember the hostage crisis. | ||
| President Jimmy Carter, who was in office, did not ask Ayatollah Khomeini to take those American diplomats hostage. | ||
| And I hear what Jim is saying in terms of context and America has done bad things to Iran. | ||
| And you can point to examples of that. | ||
| No doubt the involvement in Iran's internal affairs in 1953 was not the best of things the U.S. could have done, frankly. | ||
| But we have now moved on. | ||
| We are many decades away. | ||
| As I said before, the Iranian leadership right now can't sit there and just think about what the U.S. did back in the day when they need to look ahead. | ||
| And here's the reality for the Iranians. | ||
| They're strategically alone. | ||
| They don't have friends. | ||
| The Russians are not going to go to their aid. | ||
| In fact, the Russian foreign minister just a few days ago said if there is war between US and Iran, guess what? | ||
| Cant us out. | ||
| Russia is not going to do anything. | ||
| The Chinese, they claim to be Iran's good friend, but really all they're doing is buying Iranian oil at a 10-15% discount rate, saving billions of dollars in the process. | ||
| China is not going to go to Iran's aid in case of a conflict. | ||
| So Iran recognizes, as you pointed out, Jim, as a non-Arab country in a region of the world that is majority Arab, they don't have many friends. | ||
| Yes, you're right. | ||
| They've been there as a country, as a civilization for 5,000 years. | ||
| But they're also a civilization that have always been part of the global community, if you will, except the last 46 years when they have limited themselves by pursuing a foreign policy that has burned bridges and made fewer friends for them. | ||
| But Iran fundamentally cannot become North Korea. | ||
| That's not Iranian culture. | ||
| That's not their economic patterns. | ||
| They need to find a way to get back into the world. | ||
| And I think, again, look, I'm one of those Iranian Americans who left the country 40 years ago because of the nature of the regime. | ||
| You're not going to find me say good things about the regime because I've seen the repression this regime undertakes against its own people, the biggest victims of the Islamic Republic. | ||
| I'm not going to sit here and defend the regime because I really don't think it's a nice regime. | ||
| And I'm being very polite, putting it the way I did. | ||
| But at the same time, I put the American hat on and I say, I do not think for a second a war in the Middle East serves U.S. interests right now. | ||
| So that's why, regardless of my feelings about the regime, if there is a diplomatic way to put the brakes on this nuclear program in Iran, they can have a civilian nuclear program without the bomb and we can verify it. | ||
| And then the U.S. can focus on some of the bigger issues in the world that are, frankly, much bigger challenges potentially, such as files that are linked to what China is doing in the realm of geopolitics, economics, technology, and so forth. | ||
| So I hope that was some answer for you. | ||
| But there you have it. | ||
| Alex, you mentioned the regime. | ||
| And this text came in from Tanya in Montana. | ||
| She asked, is the realistic option of the Iranian people replacing the regime? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, if the Iranian people could have a referendum tomorrow, again, this is, I'm not a scientist by saying this, because I can't think anybody can prove what I'm about to say in a laboratory. | |
| But as somebody who comes from that country originally, been covering it professionally for 25, 26 years, there is no doubt in my mind. | ||
| If you had a free vote tomorrow in Iran, whether this regime should stay or go, I bet you 80, 85% will vote against it. | ||
| So the regime is in power because it has the money, what's left of it. | ||
| It's got the guns, it's got the services that can come and pick you up and put you in a cell. | ||
| And that has kept the regime in power for some time. | ||
| Is it going to stay in power this way forever? | ||
| I doubt it. | ||
| And I have to also remind everyone: the fellow who runs Iran essentially, this guy, Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, the Ayatollah, he's been there since 1989. | ||
| He'll be turning 86 in the next few days. | ||
| Again, I don't know he could be around for another many decades, or he might not. | ||
| And here's an opportunity, not just for the Iranian people who a long time ago would have wanted to replace this regime, but also for people who are still in the regime to have a deep look inside their souls, in the mirror, whatever they choose to do, and sort of say, hang on a minute, we've really lost our own people. | ||
| We've lost our people. | ||
| We picked up fights like going after Israel over there a thousand kilometers away, but we can't convince people in our own surroundings that we're good. | ||
| We mean well. | ||
| They've lost their people. | ||
| And that is essentially the elephant in the room for the regime. | ||
| How are they going to regain that lost trust? | ||
| And I don't, frankly, think they can, but maybe they can at least try and take the different path going forward, both in terms of domestic policies, but also in terms of what they do in their foreign policy. | ||
| And an important file of the United States. | ||
| This enmity with the U.S. has not served the Iranian national interest whatsoever. | ||
| It's just made the Iran weaker. | ||
| And they all know it. | ||
| The officials in Tehran know it. | ||
| And they accept it. | ||
| But the question now is, can they find a way to get around it and start a new chapter? | ||
| Let's talk with Shah in New Albany, Indiana, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Shah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| In three hours, I'm taking a flight from southern Indiana to come to the Washington, D.C. area to join my fellow compatriots. | ||
| Thousands of us are gathering in front of the White House to call for a regime change in Iran, not by military force or outside intervention, but by the people inside the country who have had it. | ||
| And as Alex said, 90% of the people are against this regime. | ||
| And the only reason the regime is in power because they use brute force, talk tactics, and everything that you can think of. | ||
| That's one point that I would like to make, that we do not need a regime change through military force from outside, but we need to help the Iranian people through the communication, through satellite communication, to organize, to give them internet access. | ||
| So once the Iranian regime sees itself under threat, they cut off all the communication within Iran. | ||
| They cut off the internet. | ||
| They cut off Facebook. | ||
| They cut off all those communication skills that people on the ground love to use to topple this regime. | ||
| But people in Iran are civilized, are the natural, the natural friends of the United States. | ||
| The concept of we the people needs to be exercised in Iran. | ||
| And Iran was a force for good for decades and decades until the Islamists and the extreme leftists got together and toppled the monarchy. | ||
| And tomorrow we're going to show the American people that we do not want this regime. | ||
| We want a change of regime. | ||
| We want a secular democratic regime to come to power. | ||
| So hope TSPAN comes and gives us some coverage. | ||
| Alex, I would love to meet you there if you're planning to come there. | ||
| I'm packing up with my Iranian flag and my American flag. | ||
| I'm proud of my heritage and I'm proud to be an American citizen. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| And thank you for your passion. | ||
| I will do my best. | ||
| I live in the DC area. | ||
| I didn't know about this event, but thank you for that. | ||
| And thank you for everything you said. | ||
| Look, fundamentally, I agree with you wholeheartedly. | ||
| Iranians, and every survey shows this, are the most pro-American in the Middle East, frankly. | ||
| I mean, when you compare it to some countries that are on paper, friends of the United States, and then the surveys show the public opinion might not be as so pro-American. | ||
| The irony is in Iran, you have a regime that we've come to associate with the sort of bad images of burning American flags, death to America. | ||
| And people should be forgiven for thinking, oh my God, I don't want to have anything to do with Iran. | ||
| What a dangerous place. | ||
| But you have to remember that's a tiny minority that sits and controls the country that has made the business out of being anti-American. | ||
| They don't necessarily even believe it anymore. | ||
| But being anti-American is what they have to sort of play to maintain whatever credentials they think they have. | ||
| But you look at the vast majority of Iranians and there you see a very different story. | ||
| There's a country that really looks to the United States for all sorts of leadership. | ||
| And to the question of whether the U.S. can help Iran or not. | ||
| Again, we all know this is very sensitive. | ||
| A lot of Americans are worried about their own everyday lives right now in terms of where the next paycheck is going to come from and another war that might cost another trillion dollars that we have to buy from the Chinese to pay for. | ||
| It's not something a lot of people are willing to do. | ||
| But as you pointed out, that's not necessarily the only way forward. | ||
| In fact, it hopefully wouldn't be the way forward, the military option. | ||
| But can the United States, and I'm not sure where the Trump administration is on the issue of soft power and helping people around the world help themselves. | ||
| Because right now, what we've seen in recent months with getting rid of some of these institutions or cutting them back, like the National Endowment for Democracy, USIID, the Institute of Peace here in Washington. | ||
| So I don't know where we're going on the soft power issue. | ||
| Maybe the Trump administration has different ways of making countries out there in the world become more pro-American or help them help themselves against authoritarian regimes. | ||
| That's something we all want to eagerly wait and see. | ||
| But for now, it's really important to remember the destiny of the Iranian people is also in their own hands. | ||
| So I'm glad you're organized. | ||
| But as you know, Iranian opposition has a lot more work to do to get united with a clear message and stop the bickering that unfortunately often happens among the opposition groups. | ||
| They need to focus on their enemy and their enemy is the Islamic Republic of Iran. | ||
| It's not the United States, as you pointed out. | ||
| It's not anybody else. | ||
| It's the ruling class in Iran that refuses to hear the calls for change. | ||
| But maybe there are ways to force them to change. | ||
| Bo in Sylvester, Georgia, line for independence. | ||
| Hi, Bo. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Quick question, because the time is winding down. | ||
| Let's suppose there is an agreement that the United States and the West lift sanctions off the Iranian regime. | ||
| In exchange, they can keep their nuclear program. | ||
| They just don't build a bomb without having to go to war. | ||
| That truth look, you could definitely see that as an interim, uh, interim solution, uh, but fundamentally, this is all about trust. | ||
| Uh, if Iran doesn't change its position, I mean, look, two key pillars of Iranian regional policy of the last many decades has been this argument that the United States needs to leave the Middle East. | ||
| That's a non-starter, that's a non-starter for U.S., that's a non-starter for U.S. allies. | ||
| It's not just Israel, it's the whole Gulf countries and so forth. | ||
| Um, and the other one is this uh call for Israel to cease to exist, or as the former president of Iran used to say, be wiped off the map. | ||
| What does that mean? | ||
| They mean physically, Israel ceases to exist, um, or is he talking about Israel being forced to give the Palestinians a state of their own? | ||
| I don't know, but that's exactly the sort of thing they need to, in Iran, make sure they come up with new ideas. | ||
| Because even in my estimation, even if you have a new nuclear deal, even if it's civilian, even if it's got inspectors from the international atomic energies running around and checking everything every day, if the intent, if the rhetoric from Tehran is still anti-American, anti-Israel, then it's not inconceivable to see another nuclear deal to also kind of fall apart at some point because it's all about the trust issue. | ||
| We don't talk about the Pakistani nuclear arsenal. | ||
| There are other countries out there that have nuclear weapons that happen to be Islamic or not necessarily have good relations with Israel. | ||
| But we don't talk about them because they don't have the rhetoric with their program. | ||
| And Iran needs to start thinking of more fundamental changes if this regime can indeed stay in power. | ||
| And that's a big question, Mark, because as we've discussed, it's a hugely unpopular regime. | ||
| And you have to question whether it can survive in the long run. | ||
| Alex, the talks are just starting today. | ||
| And I know you mentioned a few things that could be a red line that maybe they don't progress past today. | ||
| But if they do, what are you going to be keeping an eye out for? | ||
| What's success? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Look, again, I want to go back to a point I made earlier, Tammy. | |
| So much of what I'm worried about is style. | ||
| President Trump is the kind of guy who wants to show up and say, I got a big win. | ||
| He wants the cameras to be rolling. | ||
| I got a big win. | ||
| And that's opposite what the Iranians are willing to admit, because their political culture, their culture, frankly, is one of not losing face or saving face. | ||
| So they want to make sure, even if they make concessions, that they're not humiliated in the process, right? | ||
| I mean, for God's sake, Ayatollah Khamenei claims to be God's representative on earth. | ||
| For God's representative on earth to suddenly make a U-turn on a big question like what to do with the United States, he needs some space. | ||
| I mean, frankly, I sometimes think he wish he was dead so he didn't have to go through these talks, but such is life. | ||
| We have to deal with what the cards we handed. | ||
| But I'm worried about the optics because both sides have a different view on how this should be sort of handled so they can claim back home in Washington or Tehran that they got the win. | ||
| They should almost, for the sake of just this working out, forget about declaring victory. | ||
| Do this quietly. | ||
| Because this is the thing, the easy part, and people might come back and say, what are you talking about, easy part? | ||
| But the nuclear issue is the easy part to solve. | ||
| This is, we're talking about centrifuges, how much Iran enriches or not. | ||
| The heavy lifting will happen in terms of what Iran is doing in the region. | ||
| United States will essentially at one point say, you've got to cut back your support for the likes of Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, Haisha-Shabis in Iraq, and so on. | ||
| Iran is not going to be openly declaring, saying, yes, we'll cut these groups loose. | ||
| But quietly, they might. | ||
| That's where the intelligence community has to kick in and quietly tell President Trump, actually, they're not saying they're doing things differently, but they are. | ||
| We don't see the missiles, the weapons flowing anymore. | ||
| And that might just be good enough. | ||
| Nobody can come out and look like the big winner, but in reality, the region will hopefully experience, in such a scenario, de-escalation and getting everybody off the brink of war. | ||
| Alex Batanka is a senior fellow for the Middle East Institute, also author of the book, The Battle of the Ayatollah in Iran, the United States, Foreign Policy, and Political Rivalry since 1979. | ||
| You can find more about the Middle East Institute online at mei.edu. | ||
| Alex, thank you so much for being with us today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Really wonderful to be with you. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Next on Washington Journal, we will talk about energy, environment, and health policies under President Trump with reporter Rachel Frazen of The Hill. | ||
| She'll break down the latest administration actions from easing restrictions on the U.S. coal industry to reassessing the health impacts of fluoride and drinking water. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
| Democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
| Democracy is worth dying for. | ||
| Democracy belongs to us all. | ||
| We are here in the sanctuary of democracy. | ||
| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
| American democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We are still at our core a democracy. | |
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
|
unidentified
|
High schoolers, are you planning to take the advanced placement U.S. history exam on May 9th? | |
| Then join American History TV Saturday, April 19th at 7 p.m. Eastern as high school history teacher Matthew Ellington and Southern Illinois University History Professor Jason Stacey, co-authors of Fabric of a Nation, a history with skills and sources for the AP U.S. History course, talk about the exam. | ||
| They'll explain how this year's exam is structured and provide strategies for answering questions and analyzing historical documents. | ||
| Listen in on our discussion and be sure to take notes on the High School Advanced Placement U.S. History Exam 2025. | ||
| Saturday, April 19th at 7 p.m. Eastern on American History TV on C-SPAN 2. | ||
| Next week, watch a prime time encore presentation of our 10-part series, First 100 Days. | ||
| We explore the early months of U.S. presidencies from George Washington in 1789 to Donald Trump in 2017. | ||
| We'll learn about the decisions made and how they shaped the White House, the nation, and history. | ||
| Monday, we'll look at the first 100 days of George Washington's presidency. | ||
| He established the very office of president, created the first cabinet, helped establish the nation's courts, and the first system of tariffs and taxes. | ||
| As the inauguration approached, visitors poured into the city, filling taverns, boarding houses, and private homes. | ||
| Every one of them was desperate for a glimpse of Washington. | ||
| I have seen him, a young Boston woman breathlessly wrote home. | ||
| I never saw a human being that looked so great and noble as he does. | ||
| I could fall down on my knees before him and bless him. | ||
| Watch First 100 Days Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 2 or online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| C-SPANSHOP.org is C-SPAN's online store. | ||
| Browse through our latest collection of C-SPAN products, apparel, books, home decor, and accessories. | ||
| There's something for every C-SPAN fan, and every purchase helps support our non-profit operations. | ||
| Shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Joining us now to discuss the Trump administration's recent actions on energy and environmental issues is Rachel Frasen. | ||
| She is the energy and environment reporter with The Hill. | ||
| Rachel, thank you so much for joining us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for having me. | |
| Busy week. | ||
| You've had a very busy week. | ||
| The Trump administration has taken a lot of actions on the issues that you cover the past few weeks. | ||
| One of them this week or that has been brought up is a review of the health impacts of fluoride in the water. | ||
| Tell us what exactly they're going to be looking at. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So most water in the United States, most water systems put fluoride into their water. | |
| And fluoride, they do that because it helps with your oral health specifically to prevent cavities and tooth decay. | ||
| However, there have been some studies finding links to lower IQ points. | ||
| There are other studies that have not found such an association, but they are going to look into it. | ||
| I believe that RFK Jr., the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, is also saying he wants the CDC to no longer recommend putting fluoride in the water because of some of those studies. | ||
| And what has been the reaction to that particular review, call for review? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I've heard some alarm from some public health experts who say, well, this is really important for our teeth, for our oral health, and that, you know, your oral health can also sort of impact your overall health. | |
| You know, an infection in your mouth could spread. | ||
| And so I'm hearing some concern. | ||
| There are others in the scientific community who have raised some concerns about some of these IQ point studies. | ||
| I do think that they are in the minority, but there certainly is some debate going on on this. | ||
| When they say they are going to be reviewing it, what does that include? | ||
| How long do they normally take? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's a good question, and it can take a while, these scientific reviews of these kinds of things. | |
| They actually did recently review it in last year. | ||
| They finished a review and they found that it's fine, but I think they're just going to take a look and reassess. | ||
| There was a big assessment that came out a little bit after that last year, which from the National Toxicology Program, which did find at high levels, higher levels than we're drinking here in the United States, in association with a drop in IQ points. | ||
| And so I think that is probably what they're going to be taking the hardest look at. | ||
| And if the review comes back and has different findings than the most recent one, what are some of the potential outcomes? | ||
| What changes could happen? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So they could lower sort of the recommended level of fluoride in the water. | |
| Fluoride is a local policy and a state policy. | ||
| So the national government is not necessarily going to, you know, take all the fluoride out of the water, but they can change their directives to local and state governments to lower those levels. | ||
| Another issue that they are looking at is PSAPs or forever chemicals. | ||
| Remind us what those are and how they get into the water. | ||
|
unidentified
|
PFAS is sort of the acronym for a group of chemicals that are used in a wide variety of man-made household products. | |
| So things, anything that's nonstick, anything that's waterproof, anything that's grease-proof, sweat-resistant. | ||
| It's also been used in firefighting foams, nonstick pans, and they've been used for decades, but unfortunately, recent science has linked them to health issues, including cancer, immune system problems, fertility issues, thyroid problems, and they've also been found to be in all of us. | ||
| The CDC has found that they're in the bloodstream of at least 97% of Americans at this point. | ||
| Tell us what the current PFAS regulations look like and what actions the Trump administration could end up taking on this issue. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, currently, the Biden administration put forward a standard that requires drinking water systems to filter this stuff out by 2029 if it's in their water. | |
| And so, water utilities are sort of putting in the work right now to assess whether they have this in their water and whether or not they need to filter it out. | ||
| But it's not clear whether the Trump administration will keep those standards in place. | ||
| They might, but they also might weaken the standard. | ||
| They might sort of change the level at which water utilities have to act to get this out of our water. | ||
| And they, or they could cut it entirely. | ||
| And too soon to say. | ||
| They also might leave it in place. | ||
| We don't know. | ||
| Our guest for the next 35 minutes or so is Rachel Frasen. | ||
| She's an energy and environment reporter with The Hill. | ||
| If you have a question or comment for her, you can start calling in now the lines. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| And Rachel, on that same topic, you have a book out this week on PFAS. | ||
| Congratulations. | ||
| Tell us about it. | ||
| Why did you decide to write it? | ||
| And what exactly did you focus on? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you so much. | |
| So the book is about sort of PFAS and how we got to where we are and how this got to be in all of us. | ||
| And that's why I wrote it. | ||
| I've been covering this issue, you know, in my day job at The Hill. | ||
| And my colleague and I saw sort of that study that found it in virtually every American. | ||
| And we were like, oh my god, this isn't just impacting somebody somewhere far away. | ||
| This is in me and you and everyone that we know. | ||
| So we were like, somebody's got to tell people about this. | ||
| And I mean, we do tell people about it in our day jobs, but we ended up going to four sort of highly contaminated towns. | ||
| And through those communities, we tried to tell the story of how this came to be, you know, the industrial contamination, the military contamination, the farm contamination. | ||
| And we also took a look at sort of the historical record of what the government knew and when they knew it and what the companies that make this stuff knew and when they knew it about sort of the health harms. | ||
| The book Poisoning the Well, How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America, it is out now. | ||
| We hope everyone reads it, but for those who may not, who may have a stack of books already waiting, give us an example of some of those findings from one of those towns you went to. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I visited a town in North Carolina and it was sort of a lower-income community. | |
| They're all in well water, so they won't be impacted, for example, by these forthcoming regulations because they're not necessarily on public utility, so they may not be able to filter this out. | ||
| And I went and people started, so I think sort of my visit maybe raised alarms of sort of this random outsider lady coming into town and they sort of started thinking to themselves, well, you know, we actually have had a lot of cases of cancer. | ||
| And they started counting it up and they found over 100 cancer cases in just, you know, a couple of blocks. | ||
| And a lot of issues, that's one that maybe the EPA may be involved in. | ||
| Sean Donahue is President Trump's pick to lead that group. | ||
| Tell us about his background. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So he has ties certainly to industry and it's an interesting one. | |
| His confirmation hearing was tense. | ||
| I think that They asked him a lot of questions about his qualifications, and it'll be interesting to see how that goes. | ||
| But, you know, a lot of the Trump administration's picks have ties to industry. | ||
| I think some of their picks for the water office have ties to water utilities. | ||
| Their picks for the air office have ties to the chemical industry. | ||
| Their picks to be the deputy administrator has ties to, you know, groups that are suing to prevent some regulations. | ||
| So, sort of across the board, a lot of their picks have backgrounds that may or may not make them controversial. | ||
| He had his confirmation hearing a week or so ago. | ||
| A Senate panel advanced his nomination this week. | ||
| Do we know when the full Senate is expected to vote, and is he likely to be approved? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think that pretty much all of President Trump's picks, with a few exceptions, are likely to be approved. | |
| I'm not sure when the vote will be. | ||
| We have callers waiting to talk with you. | ||
| We will start with Steve in San Jose, California, line for Republicans. | ||
| Hi, Steve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, how are you? | |
| I hope that Kennedy's investigation of autism will include all substances that we are getting into our bodies. | ||
| I truly believe that it's an issue of what we are eating, what we are drinking, and what we are breathing. | ||
| And in regards to what we are breathing, I hope that it includes chemtrails, which have been going on for at least 20 years. | ||
| Do you want to go ahead and respond to Steve? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| I will say, you know, I think we're getting a little bit outside my scope here. | ||
| I've not necessarily heard about any links to autism or any chemtrails. | ||
| I'm not really familiar with those specific issues, but I think what we should be looking at is sort of the chemicals that are being, you know, dumped into our air and our water supply. | ||
| Certainly, the Trump administration is actually taking a very deregulatory stance on a lot of those issues, and they want to ease the burden on our companies, and so they are looking to roll back a lot of those regulations. | ||
| Another issue, or another issue that the Trump administration is looking at is coal. | ||
| And President Trump signed an executive order this week defining coal as a mineral. | ||
| Why? | ||
|
unidentified
|
He is hoping to spur more production of coal. | |
| I think that's long and short of it. | ||
| Under another executive order, I think from about a week or so ago, he made it so that minerals will be sort of prioritized, including using wartime authorities under the Defense Production Act, to spur the production of that. | ||
| So he's hoping to mine more coal, basically. | ||
| It was Senator John Barroso who responded to President Trump's EO after the signing. | ||
| I want to have you listen to the soundbite, and then we'll get your reaction on the other side. | ||
| I come to the floor today, Mr. President, to talk about a different topic, and that topic is coal, and specifically Wyoming coal, which is world-class coal, clean coal, low-sulfur coal, and this is Wyoming coal. | ||
| We need more of it, not less of it, to power our nation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Available, affordable, reliable. | |
| This has powered our nation for over a century, continues to be a major source of power for our nation, and we need it far into the future. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And today, to that case, President Trump is going to sign an executive order making clear his commitment to American energy independence. | |
| The President is moving very quickly in terms of boosting the coal industry as part of this bold plan that the administration has to restore America energy dominance. | ||
| We have more coal in this country than any other country in the world. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's one of our most affordable, reliable, and abundant sources of energy on the planet. | |
| And in America, we can use that coal cleaner than ever before. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wyoming's Powder River Basin produces the cleanest burning coal in the world. | |
| Nearly half of all coal produced in America comes from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and our neighboring state of Montana. | ||
| Wyoming's energy warriors will lead the way. | ||
| For years, Democrats have held coal captive with reckless regulations, making it harder for us to use American energy and making us more dependent on foreign sources of energy. | ||
| Joe Biden took coal offline in America. | ||
| Democrats' war on American energy strained our grid, subsidized unreliable energy, and as a result, energy prices spiked in their administration by 31%. | ||
| That hit American consumers, American manufacturers, American families, and it hurt our economy. | ||
| How much coal is the U.S. currently using for energy? | ||
| And do we know how long it will take President Trump's EO to, as Senator Barroso said there, increase production and output? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think that coal production is probably determined more by economics than by any presidential policy. | |
| And certainly, you know, some of the things the president is doing, like exempting coal from regulations, can make it more economic. | ||
| But I think that ultimately coal has been on the decline as we've seen a rise in cheap gas. | ||
| That's not to say that it's not still a major power source for us. | ||
| You know, it does power a significant source or significant portion of U.S. energy, but, you know, gas is growing, renewables are growing, and coal has been on the decline. | ||
| AI might help provide a lifeline, at least for now, but I don't know if I necessarily see that entire trend reversing. | ||
| Let's talk with Angela in Bakerfield, California, Line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Angela. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| So I do have a question for you, and maybe you could give maybe a little bit more explanation of this or see what you know about this. | ||
| And it has to do with fluoride in the water. | ||
| And from what I heard, now this is years ago I heard this, when they first started adding it to the water, that the government had went ahead and had a rat issue, and they were using the fluoride to actually control the population of rats. | ||
| But they got into the contract with the people out there who make the fluoride in order to control the rats. | ||
| Once they had purchased that contract, then they had so much that they didn't know what to do with the extract. | ||
| But they did find it helped teeth themselves. | ||
| So they went ahead and said, okay, it's great for the teeth. | ||
| Although it was bad for the gums. | ||
| And that's why toothpaste itself says do not swallow. | ||
| It's in toothpaste, but it says do not swallow. | ||
| Then I also understand from what I heard way back that it causes osteoporosis in men, where that was never an issue with men. | ||
| It was basically osteoporosis was an issue with women because women had the hormone issues. | ||
| And now that that it actually takes the magnesium out of the bones. | ||
| Then I also heard that it's actually Strong that it scars the arteries and then allows the plaque to stick to the arteries, which that's why so many younger people are now having heart stunts because the hardening of the arteries. | ||
| And then, so, what are you hearing about that? | ||
| What do you believe that where why they initially even looked at it? | ||
| Thank you for the question. | ||
| I have not heard of any of those other health impacts. | ||
| I would have to, you know, do more research and really look into it. | ||
| But I think that the concerns that are being raised are some of these studies about the association between IQ and fluoride. | ||
| Now, there are other studies, I want to be clear, that have not found such associations. | ||
| And I think that a lot of the public health experts that I've spoken to have said that fluoride is good for our oral health and should still be in the water. | ||
| But there are some of those IQ point studies out there. | ||
| I've not really heard of any of those other connections that you mentioned. | ||
| One of your bylines this week: Trump orders agencies to sunset environmental protections. | ||
| Tell us what they're looking at and what could be rolled back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, it seems like just about anything. | |
| We are not sure what they're going to do at EPA because they've not outlined which laws they'd like to look at regulations under, but you know, at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, you know, rules that keep us safe from nuclear exposure to rules governing the Endangered Species Act and how we deal with those species in terms of our development. | ||
| And so, I think it's going to be a lot basically anything, most environmental regulations could be facing sort of a sunset clause. | ||
| I think the big question is whether or not that will hold up in court, because I'm sure that a lot of the folks who do support those regulations will challenge that effort. | ||
| Rachel Frasen, our guest for the next 20 minutes or so, she is an energy and environment reporter with The Hill. | ||
| If you have a question or comment for her, the lines Republicans 202-748-8001, Democrats 202-748-8000, and Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| We'll talk with Jeff in Nebraska. | ||
| Line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Jeff. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm pretty sure that if you brush your teeth every day, that the fluoride in the toothpaste is an ample amount for every single person every day if they brush their teeth. | ||
| At least that's what they're coming out with now. | ||
| And that's why they're dropping fluoride in water in some of the states already. | ||
| The thing you're talking about with the infection in bodies, you're right about that. | ||
| DuPont, through Teflon, infected just about every single individual in America with the Teflon contamination. | ||
| They had 55-gallon drums in the city across Ohio there, the border, and found 55-gallon drums in the rivers and the creeks where DuPont and DuPont paid. | ||
| I mean, they paid a lot of money out because of that because they infected an entire city. | ||
| And that was in West Virginia. | ||
| But we still have dyes that Europe outlawed 30 years ago on lipstick, makeup, all kinds of stuff that it needs to be taken care of. | ||
| And we've got a lot of people that are fighting this. | ||
| It's unbelievable. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So, on the DuPont and Teflon issue that you mentioned, there's actually a lot more on that in my book. | ||
| And there are records showing that DuPont and other companies had evidence of the toxicity of some of the chemicals that they were using for decades, studies from the 60s, 70s, and 80s and documents referring to these things as hazardous. | ||
| Let's talk with John, or I'm sorry, Paul in Vermont, line for independence. | ||
| Hi, Paul. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| Oh, go ahead, Paul. | ||
| You're on. | ||
| Oh, okay. | ||
| I have a question for Rachel, actually. | ||
| As far as water quality. | ||
| Well, what really concerns me a little bit is they're talking about fluoride in the water. | ||
| And I listen to a lot of interviews with scientists, actually, and people that know what's going on. | ||
| And we got this quack there, JFK Jr., that thinks that he knows everything and wants to get rid of all the scientists. | ||
| And he's actually just fired a whole bunch of people that he doesn't even know he fired. | ||
| So he thinks he's going to cure autism here in September. | ||
| And so I just was kind of wondering how all these studies are going to be done to figure all this stuff out when they're firing everybody. | ||
| If you could maybe give me some idea on how this is supposed to work. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| I think it's a great question. | ||
| And, you know, I think that getting rid of a lot of these workers might impede some of these efforts. | ||
| I think that some of them are going to be at the EPA, where some of them are going to be at HHS, where RFK works. | ||
| And I think that, but, yeah, they're firing a lot of scientists. | ||
| And who knows if this will maybe backfire on some of their efforts, but I'm sure that they will probably try to either keep or recall some of the people who, if they fire the folks who would be doing these studies, I'm sure maybe they'll try to bring them back. | ||
| We've seen cases of that at various administrations. | ||
| I think when they were firing some of the newer workers, they maybe fired some folks who were working in nuclear security and then tried to bring those folks back. | ||
| So that might be how this goes is they might slash and then try and find those folks and bring them back. | ||
| But I guess we'll have to wait and see. | ||
| John in Maryland, Line for Republicans. | ||
| Hi, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, good morning. | |
| Yeah, I was interested in your comment. | ||
| 97% of Americans have PFAS in their bloodstream. | ||
| That seems alarming to me, to say the least. | ||
| Is there any efforts to study the 3% of Americans that don't have it in their blood and what they're doing right or wrong to explain that? | ||
| It's a great question. | ||
| I think that it might be that 97% might not even capture the full picture. | ||
| I'm not sure that there are 3% of Americans who don't have it. | ||
| I think that they've just sort of found it to be in that many. | ||
| So it could be in more. | ||
| It really could be in every last one of us. | ||
| So it's not that 3% of people are necessarily doing something right. | ||
| But I Think that we all have varying levels of exposure to this stuff because of a lot of times circumstance. | ||
| You know, how clean is the water that you're drinking? | ||
| You know, are you using products that have this stuff in it? | ||
| And I think that, you know, a lot of it might just be circumstance. | ||
| Wanted to ask you about another executive order that President Trump signed this week having to do with shower heads. | ||
| First, tell us what the executive order did. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So the executive order directs the Energy Department to repeal Biden-era restrictions on water flow from showerheads. | |
| They basically, it actually kind of skips, you know, what might be the typical notice and comment period and says, because I, as the president, have determined that this regulation is unnecessary, we're just going to go ahead and skip that, and you should just go ahead and repeal this regulation. | ||
| So the Department of Energy would still need to actually go ahead and do that, but he's trying to pretty much very quickly sort of, I guess, expand the market of showerheads to increase the flow. | ||
| It's not clear to me whether or not, you know, the makers of these showerheads will then sort of go ahead and make additional products or not. | ||
| I think that's still to be seen, but that's what he's trying to do. | ||
| That is the argument that the Wall Street Journal editorial board makes this morning in this op-ed. | ||
| Trump liberates America's showerhead. | ||
| In part, it says the White House fact sheet says Mr. Trump's order this week will undo a regulatory action under Mr. Biden that took an astonishing 13,000 words of background and explanation to define the term showerhead. | ||
| The idea now is to make legal to produce shower fixtures with multiple fierce hydra heads. | ||
| Supporters of the current restrictions seem to think Big Fixture isn't eager to retool, especially since the next president might crink the tap again in 2029. | ||
| It also says that the cleanest option would be for Congress to repeal the law instead of having these regulations and executive orders in place. | ||
| What has Congress been looking at when it comes to making permanent some of these regulations from any administration? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I think that these have become quite partisan, you know, where Republicans have sort of, I guess, attacked what they see as, you know, an attack on consumer choice. | |
| They've gone after a lot of these efficiency regulations, whereas Democrats say, hey, this is good for everybody. | ||
| It saves water, it saves energy, it saves consumers money on their water and or energy bills. | ||
| And so I think it's become quite partisan. | ||
| And with the filibuster and all, I think it would be sort of hard to come to a consensus, which is probably why Congress has not weighed in. | ||
| I think that happens, you know, a lot these days across issues. | ||
| But so Congress hasn't quite weighed in, but certainly it's a hot, heated topic. | ||
| So I guess we'll see. | ||
| Let's talk with Robert in Florida, Line for Republicans. | ||
| Hi, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Go ahead, Robert. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yep. | |
| I have a question about all the benzene that the oil companies were putting in the gasoline for years to boost octane. | ||
| My understanding, it's included about 100% of our water supply, and they don't have any way to get it out of there. | ||
| Thanks for the question. | ||
| Oh, sorry. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| Thank you for the question. | ||
| Benzene has come from things like oil refineries, I believe. | ||
| And I think there are ways to sort of clean up our environment through, you know, the EPA doing some remediation, but I think we'll just have to see how that goes. | ||
| Let's talk with Danny and Rock Island, Tennessee, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Danny. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Go ahead, Danny. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're on. | |
| Yes. | ||
| You know, the Republicans have said that, you know, the Democrats has shut down all the pipelines and all this stuff. | ||
| We've been producing more oil than we've ever produced under the Biden administration. | ||
| And the way they regulate this stuff is how they refine it. | ||
| That's where the stopgap is. | ||
| But we're producing more oil and more natural gas than we've ever produced. | ||
| And, you know, the reason the prices are coming down is because the Trump administration is not taxing the oil companies. | ||
| Marathon Oil had their largest third quarter they ever had. | ||
| And we're not taxing them. | ||
| When you have windfall profits, you need to tax the people that's making the money. | ||
| And that's my stance. | ||
| Thanks for weighing in. | ||
| I think that, you know, what a lot of people do misunderstand is that oil production is probably more determined by economics than presidential policy, right? | ||
| So I don't think any president is really going to have that much of a say on whether or how much oil we produce unless they use something really drastic. | ||
| So I think if oil prices are high, oil companies are going to see that as an opportunity to make more money and they're going to drill. | ||
| If oil prices are low, they might sort of stop making investments or sort of question whether they should or take a more, I guess, conservative stance on, you know, how much they're going to drill just because they want to go where the money is. | ||
| Rachel, you've talked a lot about some of the energy and environmental issues that the Trump administration has taken on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So far, still a lot. | |
| Even more that we haven't talked about. | ||
| What are some of the other key issues that you've been covering and what else are you keeping your eye on? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I think that probably the biggest thing is just sort of a broad deregulatory effort from the Trump administration. | |
| Now, this isn't necessarily unique to Trump. | ||
| I think across the board, Democrats regulate, Republicans deregulate. | ||
| But what I think is very interesting is that, you know, Republicans have also sort of adopted this Make America Healthy Again slogan. | ||
| And they say they want to combat our exposure to toxic chemicals. | ||
| President Trump, in his, you know, address to Congress, he said he pointed to a little boy in the crowd and said, this boy was exposed to a toxic chemical and now he has cancer. | ||
| But at the same time, his EPA is rolling back dozens of actions and regulations that, you know, sought to reduce people's exposure to toxic chemicals. | ||
| I think there are some issues like PFAS where it's too soon to say what they're going to do. | ||
| There are some issues like fluoride where that's not necessarily a toxic chemical in that same sense. | ||
| But they are trying to reduce exposure. | ||
| They are taking on some things as far as food safety. | ||
| But I think broadly, they are sort of erasing regulations that were intended to protect people from toxic chemicals while sort of also taking this Make America Healthy Again slogan. | ||
| And I think just how that plays out in the years ahead is something that I've got my eye on. | ||
| Our guest, Rachel Frasen, energy and environment reporter for The Hill and also co-author of the book Poisoning the Well, How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America. | ||
| Rachel, thank you so much for being with us today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for having me. | |
| We are wrapping up today's program with open form. | ||
| You can start calling in now. | ||
| The Lions Republicans 202-748-8000. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
| Richard Overy is a British historian who has spent most of his professional life writing books about war, primarily World War II. | ||
| Professor Overy's current work is called Reign of Ruin, Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan. | ||
| Liner notes on the cover of the book say, quote, with the development of the B-29 Superfortress in the summer of 1944, strategic bombing, a central component of the Allied war effort against Germany, arrived in the Pacific Theater. | ||
| 1945, Japan experienced the three most deadly bombing attacks of the war. | ||
| Professor Richard Overy is 77 and lives in Great Britain and Italy. | ||
| He has written close to 30 books. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Author Richard Overy, with his book, Reign of Ruin, Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan on this episode of Book Notes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb. | |
| BookNotes Plus is available wherever you get your podcasts and on the C-SPAN Now app. | ||
| Sunday on C-SPAN's Q&A. | ||
| Travel writer Rick Steves talks about his 1978 journey along the hippie trail and the 60,000-word journal he kept of the trip, which he recently published as a book. | ||
| During the 3,000-mile trek, the then 23-year-old Steves and a friend visited Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. | ||
| He recalls the people he met along the way, the challenges of traveling in foreign countries in the 1970s, and the lifelong impact the trip had on him. | ||
| It's fun to look back on it with the help of the journal and see how naive and green and uneducated I was. | ||
| But it's the growing pains of a global perspective, of gaining a global perspective. | ||
| And I've got this notion that culture shock is a good thing. | ||
| A lot of people try to avoid culture shock. | ||
| To me, culture shock is constructive. | ||
| It's the growing pains of a broadening perspective. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Rick Steves, with his book On the Hippie Trail, Sunday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q&A wherever you get your podcasts and on the C-SPAN Now app. | |
| Democracy. | ||
| It isn't just an idea. | ||
| It's a process. | ||
| A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
| It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. | ||
| Democracy in real time. | ||
| This is your government at work. | ||
| This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered. | ||
| Next week, watch a primetime encore presentation of our 10-part series, First 100 Days. | ||
| We explore the early months of U.S. presidencies, from George Washington in 1789 to Donald Trump in 2017. | ||
| We'll learn about the decisions made and how they shaped the White House, the nation, and history. | ||
| Monday, we'll look at the first 100 days of George Washington's presidency. | ||
| He established the very office of president, created the first cabinet, helped establish the nation's courts, and the first system of tariffs and taxes. | ||
| As the inauguration approached, visitors poured into the city, filling taverns, boarding houses, and private homes. | ||
| Every one of them was desperate for a glimpse of Washington. | ||
| I have seen him, a young Boston woman breathlessly wrote home. | ||
| I never saw a human being that looked so great and noble as he does. | ||
| I could fall down on my knees before him and bless him. | ||
| Watch First 100 Days Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 2 or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Welcome back. | ||
| We are in open form for the duration of today's show. | ||
| Next 30, 35 minutes. | ||
| There's a public policy issue you would like to discuss. | ||
| You can give us a call. | ||
| The numbers there on your screen. | ||
| We will start with Betty in South Carolina, line for Republicans. | ||
| Hi, Betty. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| I just want to say, Charlotte. | ||
| Betty, are you there? | ||
| Betty, you're breaking up. | ||
| We didn't quite hear you. | ||
| Go ahead and give us a call back. | ||
| Let's talk with Gilbert in Alabama, line for independence. | ||
| Hi, Gilbert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning to C-SPAN. | |
| As I was listening to the previous section talking about the budget cuts, I think that before the Great Depression, this country didn't have a social safety net. | ||
| And with the cuts that's coming from the Education Department, cuts at FEMA, and especially that at the USAID, this country is setting itself up for creating a perpetual social underclass. | ||
| Now, everybody talk about cutting this and cutting that, but it took the funding to these different agencies to keep us where people wouldn't afford the destitution. | ||
| That's why the Great Depression was so hard. | ||
| And what I see on the horizon is that America is going down a slippery slope if they think that they can take all the funding from all these different agencies and don't directly affect the demographic of people that's already catching in in this country. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Gilbert in Alabama. | ||
| John in Syracuse, New York, line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, Terry. | |
| I regret, as a Democrat who voted for Donald Trump, I regret it because these cuts in services have affected me now. | ||
| About two weeks ago, I lost my wife of 45 years. | ||
| And I was a federal employee. | ||
| I retired 50 years with the post office. | ||
| I retired a couple years back. | ||
| And I have to call the Office of Personnel Management whenever there's a life change. | ||
| That number cannot be reached. | ||
| They took it down because of probably staffing cuts or whatever Elon Musk is doing. | ||
| They cut everything. | ||
| You can't get to a human being. | ||
| So I'm not sure how I'm going to notify them of my wife's death, but I'm going to keep at it, of course. | ||
| But this is how services, when you start cutting people and denying them services, that's a terrible thing. | ||
| I never would have voted for the guy if I knew that this would be happening. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Oh, yeah. | ||
| Sorry for your loss. | ||
| LaCell in Georgia, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, LaCal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Doing well. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's great. | |
| I think that the Department of Government Efficiency is an excellent department that was originated or orchestrated or propagated rather by President Donald Trump. | ||
| However, there is other measures that America should take in the area of natural resources because currently speaking, when it comes down to our reserves, when it comes down to carbon fibers and what have you, America has to keep in mind its space as for the ration. | ||
| And when that is inputted, or we take concentration, broad concentration in space as for the nation, it's going to minimize natural resources for the United States on the earth spatial plane in essence. | ||
| So, therefore, my question would be for a forward advancement of natural resources, would in fact nuclear power would be beneficial to the American economy. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Faquel in Georgia. | ||
| This headline from CNN: U.S. consumer sentiment plummets to second lowest level on record going back to 1952. | ||
| The story says that it plunged 11% this month to a preliminary reading of 50.8. | ||
| The University of Michigan said in its latest survey released Friday, the second lowest reading on record going back to 1952. | ||
| April's reading was lower than anything seen during the Great Recession. | ||
| And it says this decline, like the months, pervasive and unanimous across age, income, education, geographic region, and political affiliation. | ||
| Joanne Tsu, the survey director, said in a release, sentiment now lost more, has now lost more than 30% since December of 2024 amid growing worries about trade war developments that have oscillated over the course of the year, she added. | ||
| And it was Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt that was asked about the new survey yesterday during the White House press briefing. | ||
| Here is her remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why is American consumer confidence so low? | |
| Look, I think there's a great optimism in this economy, great optimism for the American people, a lot of reason for people to feel optimistic. | ||
| The president is, as I just said, trying to renegotiate the global trade agenda that has ripped off the American people for far too long. | ||
| As he said, this is going to be a period of transition. | ||
| He wants consumers to trust in him, and they should trust in him. | ||
| Look at what he did in his first term. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I just want to reiterate all the reasons to be confident since you asked, Jeff, for those watching at home, yesterday, the CPI report, inflation declined massively. | |
| Consumer prices are dropping for the first time in years. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Energy prices are down. | |
| In fact, oil prices are down 20% since this president took office. | ||
| Wholesale prices fell again. | ||
| There have been trillions of dollars in investments into this country. | ||
| Every day, the president is signing executive orders to cut regulation, especially when it comes to the environmental protection agency, our energy industry. | ||
| That's going to unleash the economic boom in this country that we saw in the president's first term. | ||
| So trust in President Trump. | ||
| He knows what he's doing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is a proven economic formula. | |
| Back to your calls. | ||
| Michael, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Michael. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm calling to advocate for the increase in the number of representatives in the House of Representatives. | ||
| So there's several reasons I think this would be good for the country. | ||
| Number one, I think that because House of Representatives districts are so large, in some cases they span the entire state, they have to spend a lot of their time fundraising in order to afford campaign advertisements and media, in order to be able to afford to buy media to outreach to the entire district. | ||
| Whereas if House districts were smaller in size, then they could Canvas the district using more person-to-person methods and wouldn't be dependent on campaign money for that reason. | ||
| I think also more representatives would give voice to unheard minority communities that aren't being represented currently. | ||
| Also, I think that if there were more representatives in the House, then a lot of the legislative activity that happens in executive agencies, | ||
| particularly let's say EPA, there's legislative function that happens within the agency, and I think that would be better handled through our representatives and in the subcommittees, the House subcommittees. | ||
| And also, I think it's unfair that because there aren't enough representatives, that there's a big discrepancy as far as district size between one district and another. | ||
| So I think Montana has twice as much population per representative that, say, Wyoming does. | ||
| And I think we should, I would say, triple the number of representatives so that each state has more representatives than they do senators. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Michael in Florida. | ||
| Matt and New York, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Matt. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| In one of the previous segments, I heard again, once again, and I've heard it for I don't know how many years now, Donald Trump's a big liar. | ||
| Let's talk about lies. | ||
| How about this lie? | ||
| If you like your doctor and you like your insurance company, you can keep them. | ||
| Another lie. | ||
| Hunter's laptop was a Russian hoax. | ||
| And probably the biggest lie, and probably, as Carolyn Levitt said, greatest scandal in American history politically is that Joe Biden was fit for office. | ||
| They hit him in the basement in 2020. | ||
| He got away with it because of COVID. | ||
| The guy's brain is applesauce. | ||
| It would be wonderful to find out who was actually running this country. | ||
| So when these Democrats call in and call Trump a liar, it's just amazing the hypocrisy because of the big lies that they have perpetrated on the American public. | ||
| And another thing, the latest poll has the popularity of the Democrat Party down to 10%. | ||
| Now, I think that's an outlier, but 20-some percent I agree with, and over 40% of Democrats are disappointed with the Democrat Party. | ||
| But yet on this show, you have so many Democrats calling in with the same BS, and I think it's because of the Democrat ground game. | ||
| People think that the ground game is only during election time. | ||
| No, it's happening constantly. | ||
| They never stop. | ||
| They're calling in. | ||
| The guy from Syracuse, all he has to do is go online. | ||
| And being a retired postal employee, probably was a member of the union, and he possibly could be part of that ground game. | ||
| You know, there's just so many of them calling in when the polls consistently show that the Democrat Party is in the tank. | ||
| And so it's got to be the ground gig doing this stuff. | ||
| So when you talk about lies, let's really look at some of the lies. | ||
| Like Joe Biden. | ||
| We got your point, Matt. | ||
| This from Fox News. | ||
| Trump feels in, quote, good shape after physical, says he got every question right on cognitive test. | ||
| The article says that President Trump said on Friday that his first physical examination of his second term went well. | ||
| And overall, he feels in very good shape. | ||
| The president told reporters on board Air Force One while en route to his home in West Palm Beach, Florida evening, that the yearly presidential physical at Walter Reed Medical Center showed he had a good heart, a good soul. | ||
| And overall, I think I'm in very, he said I felt very, in very good shape, said that he also took a cognitive test. | ||
| He said, I don't know what to tell you other than I got every question right, the president told reporters. | ||
| Back to your calls, Tony in California, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Tony. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just wanted to speak about the lack of consumer confidence right now in the country. | ||
| I have to say it's very difficult to feel any confidence in what the future brings since this current administration has currently thrown everything in the stock market for the loop, which like has kind of really jeopardized retirees who really don't have a lot of time to make up for what the stocks are lost. | ||
| So maybe they'll live, maybe they won't. | ||
| All of the funding, the government federal funding for government programs that help people, like older people, have also had the rug pulled out of them at this time. | ||
| You know, the friends I know were kind of upset when suddenly like people of color were disappearing from the Armed Services website just because they had black names, I guess, or they were black people. | ||
| It was pretty unfair. | ||
| A lot of these people volunteered for war. | ||
| They didn't get picked because of their color. | ||
| This just seems so systematically aimed to throw the whole population off balance and create a great deal of fear. | ||
| And people at this point don't know what to do. | ||
| I was released from the hospital recently. | ||
| I spoke to a lot of people on the staff who were very worried. | ||
| A lot of them were worried about why the man they voted for has suddenly like made them lose $100,000 in their 401ks. | ||
| They've got children they're trying to raise. | ||
| They've got old parents they're trying to take care of. | ||
| And, you know, it's hard to make a plan for the future and spend all your money when you don't know if you're going to have enough to be able to just keep your roof over your head. | ||
| That's all. | ||
| It's pretty sad. | ||
| That was Tony in California, Hugh, in Brevard, North Carolina, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Hugh. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just making this call because I want to advocate for myself and other Americans that are just like me. | ||
| It's a mental health issue. | ||
| I suffer greatly from anxiety and paranoia. | ||
| And my health care providers cannot get a medicine. | ||
| I've took them what they prescribed the last five and a half years, and they have done one bit of good. | ||
| Not one. | ||
| And I'm sorry for myself. | ||
| I'm sorry for other people that's being treated or not being treated the way I feel like I should be. | ||
| Y'all have a good day. | ||
| Love you. | ||
| Mean it. | ||
| Those of you in North Carolina, this headline from USA Today, Judge demands daily updates on return plan for Marilyn Mann wrongly deported to El Salvador. | ||
| It says that a federal judge Friday ordered the Trump administration to provide immediate information on the whereabouts of a Maryland father who the Supreme Court affirmed Thursday must be returned after being improperly deported to El Salvador. | ||
| When a Justice Department attorney said the administration needed more time to respond to questions about the man's location and status, the judge said she found it extremely troubling that the government, after all this time, would not say where Kilmar Abrego-Garcia is today. | ||
| It was yesterday after that court hearing that the lawyer for Mr. Abrego Garcia spoke to the press. | ||
| Here are his remarks. | ||
| The district judge issued a further order clarifying her ruling and explaining that the government needs to take all steps reasonable to facilitate the return of Mr. Obrego Garcia to the United States and that, in the meanwhile, it needs to provide the court with information, specifically three pieces of information. | ||
| One, where is Mr. Obrego Garcia right now? | ||
| What is his custodial status? | ||
| Two, what has the government done so far to try to bring him back? | ||
| There were several days when the court's order was in effect prior to the Supreme Court entering a stay, and now it's been more than 12 hours since the Supreme Court lifted the stay. | ||
| What has the government done during that time to bring him back? | ||
| And then, three, what is the government planning to do to carry out the court's order, which is again, to take all reasonable steps to facilitate the return of mr Abrego Garcia to the United States as quickly as possible? | ||
| The government refused to provide any of those pieces of information that the judge ordered them to provide, not only the information about what future steps they're planning to take, they even refused to answer the question about what they've done so far, and they even refused to answer the question about where Kilmar Abrego Garcia is today. | ||
| For the second time. | ||
| In this case, they sent a lawyer into court who has no had no answers. | ||
| He explained that his clients, the government, have chosen not to give him any information, not to give him any evidence, and the district judge appropriately, was not willing to accept their vague and unsubstantiated assertions. | ||
| That don't worry judge, we'll take care of this all in due course. | ||
| The government attorney did say that they intend to comply with the order and bring him back. | ||
| That's the bare minimum. | ||
| They should have done that already. | ||
| They've had plenty of time between the Supreme Court's order early yesterday evening and now. | ||
| He should be here in the United States. | ||
| It's a five-hour flight. | ||
| And another update on a different immigration hearing. | ||
| This from today's Wall Street Journal: Columbia student is ruled deportable. | ||
| The article says that an immigration judge in Louisiana ruled that the government can deport Mahmoud Khali Khalil, an early step in what is expected to be a long legal fight over whether the Columbia University student can remain in the U.S. | ||
| Judge Jamie Comans decided Friday that Khalil was deportable under a seldom used section of the Immigration and Nationality Act relating to foreign policy interest. | ||
| Says a letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, affirming he believed Khalil is deportable under that section of the act was sufficient for the government to meet its burden. | ||
| She said after about an hour and a half in court. | ||
| The Coman's decision is a victory for the Trump administration, but it doesn't mean that Khalil, a green card holder who was arrested early last month, will be quickly deported. | ||
| His constitutional claims that his detention violates his First Amendment and due process rights are still playing out in a federal court in New Jersey where a judge has ordered Khalil remain in the U.S. as the case continues. | ||
| It says that an immigration court comes in in immigration court. | ||
| Comanz will next consider whether Khalil is a valid claim, has a valid claim for relief from deportation, such as asylum. | ||
| His legal team is also likely to appeal her Friday decision through the immigration court system. | ||
| About 12 minutes left in today's program. | ||
| Let's hear from Dylan in Sturgis, South Dakota. | ||
| Line for Republicans. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi, Dylan. | |
| Hi. | ||
| Say, I'm a disabled veteran. | ||
| I was going to talk about the VA out here. | ||
| They're doing a good job and everything. | ||
| They're cutting a lot of people, but I'm getting good service from them. | ||
| I've been disabled since Vietnam. | ||
| I did two years in Vietnam. | ||
| But I see that a lot of these guys are MF-13. | ||
| So, you know, it's kind of complicated when you're trying to find out who's who, you know. | ||
| And it's real mellow around here in the Black Hills, you know. | ||
| But we don't have very many kind of immigrants here. | ||
| I see some downtown in the store, and they're real friendly and everything. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I kind of mind my own business. | ||
| I have my house paid and my car paid. | ||
| I'm unfortunate. | ||
| You know, I get a VA check and Social Security, so I'm kind of sad. | ||
| I'm 74 now. | ||
| So I've had that age in orange cancer and all that. | ||
| But I'm going to let you folks go. | ||
| You're doing a wonderful job, Cease Mayor. | ||
| I appreciate you. | ||
| I watch you every day. | ||
| Dylan in South Dakota, Mufasa in Jackson, Michigan, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Musafa. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning, and thank you for taking my call. | |
| That is Mustafa. | ||
| As a proud U.S. Army veteran and a proud foundational black American whose ancestors built this country, I would like to discuss briefly FBA, Foundational Black Americans, who are descendants of freedmen escaping the Democratic plantation and watching the Democrats crash out with ratchets like crocket, simply because of their benign neglect toward the foundational black American community and anti-black racism and anti-black misandry toward the foundational black American communities. | ||
| I will also not blindly vote for the anti-black Republic Klan Party either. | ||
| Going forward, I will support a party based on the policies that I feel affect my family and the foundational black American wider community. | ||
| Currently, those are three issues within the political realm foundational black Americans are focused on, if you allow me briefly: lineage-based cash reparations for black American descendants of freedmen, anti-black American hate crime deal, and stopping and deporting the harrison by illegal economic aliens. | ||
| Illegal immigration is genocide for the foundational black American community. | ||
| Lastly, I would implore you and your listeners to please stop referring to foundational black Americans as African American. | ||
| It helps create ethnocide against black American descendants of freedmen. | ||
| We are not generic Africans or people of color. | ||
| Some black people were here prior to slavery. | ||
| Furthermore, an ethnogenesis has taken place with us. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| That was Mustafa in Michigan. | ||
| Rick in Wheeling, West Virginia, line for Republicans. | ||
| Hi, Rick. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi, how are you today, ma'am? | |
| I want to first say that I'm a strong supporter of President Trump generally on his policies. | ||
| But one area I have to disagree with, it's been reported in the news that the president's budget is going to reduce NASA by 20%, in particular, going to cut the science programs, and in particular, they're going to cut the Mars sample return mission completely. | ||
| In my opinion, that would be a serious mistake and a serious mistake for a lot of reasons. | ||
| One of the main ones, and I'll give you an example. | ||
| On March 17, 2025, EarthSky.org published an article entitled Life on Mars: Odd Rings and Spots Tantalize Scientists. | ||
| And it discusses two papers that were presented at the most recent Lunar and Planetary Science Conference and data from the Mars Perseverance rover discussing poppy seeds and Leonard's leopard spots. | ||
| The conclusion of the two papers and the researchers state: the researchers suggest that the most likely explanation for these poppy seeds and leopard spots is a biological one. | ||
| In other words, the scientists are saying it's not only possible that life exists on Mars, but it's very probable that life exists on Mars. | ||
| Given this new data, it would be a very, very serious mistake to cancel Mars sample return mission. | ||
| The Perseverance rover has been collecting samples in one of them, this area. | ||
| We need to get that back to Earth as soon as possible. | ||
| Also, Elon Musk himself has expressed concerns. | ||
| He called it troubling, the idea of cutting the NASA budget by 20% and the science budget by 50%. | ||
| Like I say, given this most recent data that was presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, it's very important that NASA carry out a Mars sample return mission. | ||
| And that given the high probability now of life on Mars as indicated by this data, it's then very important that other missions like the DaVinci mission to Venus and other missions be carried out to look for signs of life in other parts of the solar system. | ||
| That was Rick in West Virginia, Robert in Houston, Texas. | ||
| Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| How are you today? | ||
| Doing well. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| I would like to discuss, and I get tired of the Republicans saying that poor Trump, because he's got all these lawsuits and stuff that go after him. | ||
| But I've got a list of his, it's really his M.O. because in 2000, he got sued by the Lobby Commission in 1998, money laundering violations. | ||
| He fleeced students in his Trump University and he got sued for millions of dollars. | ||
| Another money laundering allegation in 2015. | ||
| Charity fraud. | ||
| He stole from his charity. | ||
| I could go on and on. | ||
| It would take too long, though. | ||
| I've got a long list. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And, you know, now that he's a president, it seems like he's using his power now to try to control the judges and law firms, and especially the ones that have gone after him, or not gone after him, but tried his criminal acts. | ||
| And that's very similar to mob boss. | ||
| And he's using his power now. | ||
| He can use his power now to break laws and not have to pay all these lawsuits that he, and he never went to jail, but he had to pay several hundred millions of dollars for these crimes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And I guess, you know, I just want people to remember that. | ||
| I mean, he's our president. | ||
| There's nothing we can do about that. | ||
| But he is basically a criminal. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And like it or not. | ||
| And that's all I have to say. | ||
| And thank you so much for your time. | ||
| That was Robert in Texas, Larry, Los Angeles, California, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Larry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning to you. | |
| Good morning, Ceasebound audience. | ||
| I had a question that I'd like to maybe have callers call in on and maybe comment on. | ||
| And that's with respect to DEI and its comparison to the Emancipation Proclamation that was signed by President Lincoln with the diversity, | ||
| inclusion, and equity when the slaves were released to participate in the Civil War, which kind of helped the country become what it is. | ||
| I just would like to hear maybe some comments on that, how the Emancipation Proclamation was basically a form of DEI during the Civil War. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Larry in Los Angeles. | ||
| Deborah in New York, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Deborah. | ||
| Deborah, are you there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello? | |
| Hi, Deborah. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| Go ahead, Your Honor. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can you go ahead and turn down your television in the background? | |
| Yes, yes. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| I'm sorry to do that. | ||
| I was calling just to comment on a previous caller who indicated that Joe Biden's mental state was such that somebody else must have been leading the government. | ||
| And I would suggest that the Democrats find out who that is or was and bring him up so that he can become the president after Trump, because we are going to need somebody like that to pull us out of the mess. | ||
| Trump is going to leave us like he did the last time. | ||
| So that was really the only comment I had to make. | ||
| But thank you so much and have a nice day. | ||
| That was Deborah in New York. | ||
| And Donna, our last call for today in Aurora, Illinois, Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Donna. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, who says that Elon Musk knows everything we need to know about our government and our spending today? | |
| Nobody put him in office. | ||
| And Donald Trump is a felon, 34 felonies against him. | ||
| Who the hell voted for this man? | ||
| He's a pile of orange diarrhea. | ||
| That was Donna in Illinois, and our last call for today's program. | ||
| Thank you to our guests and our callers. | ||
| We'll be back tomorrow morning with another edition of Washington Journal at 7 a.m. Eastern and 4 a.m. Pacific. | ||
| Until then, enjoy your day. | ||
|
unidentified
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C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy. | |
| From Washington and across the country. | ||
| Coming up Sunday morning, we'll talk about the trade tensions between the U.S. and China amid escalating tariff threats with the Hudson Institute's Miles Yu. | ||
| Then, Vanessa Cardenas, Executive Director at America's Voice, discusses the Trump administration's immigration and deportation policies. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern Sunday morning on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| Later today, freshman Democratic Representative Suha Subarmanyam speaks to constituents at a town hall in Fairfax County, Virginia. | ||
| Watch live at 3 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| Hi schoolers, are you planning to take the Advanced Placement U.S. History Exam on May 9th? |