| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
We'll talk about the Trump administration's foreign and economic policies with author and TV host Badia Unger Sargon. | |
| Then Brett Samuels of The Hill discusses White House news of the day and previews the week ahead. | ||
| And Richard Reeves, founder of the American Institute for Boys and Men, shares concerns over the current state of the male population in the U.S. Washington Journal starts now. | ||
| This is Washington Journal for Monday, October 20th. | ||
| This morning, the government shutdown continues as the funding lab enters its third full week. | ||
| The House remains out of session, but senators return to the nation's capital today and are expected to take their 11th vote on the House-passed Republican short-term government funding plan. | ||
| We're starting today's program with your thoughts on day 20 of the government shutdown. | ||
| Here are the lines. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you're a federal worker, you can give us a call at 202-748-8003. | ||
| You can text your comments to that same number, 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 an X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Good morning, and thank you for being with us. | ||
| We will get to your calls and comments in just a few moments. | ||
| But as you're dialing in, this is from Fox News. | ||
| It was published last Friday. | ||
| It says, Speaker Mike Johnson has once again instructed House lawmakers to remain in their home districts next week, keeping attention and heat in Washington on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for over a month. | ||
| A clerk in the House of Representatives announced on Friday that Johnson has designated October 20th through 23rd as a district work period, meaning no votes or House hearings are expected to be held for that time. | ||
| It goes on to say that the House GOP passed its federal funding package on September 19th, a seven-week extension of the fiscal year 2025 government spending levels called a continuing resolution. | ||
| It goes on to say that Johnson told reporters earlier on Friday that he would give House members 48 hours notice before they had to return for any votes, something he stated both publicly and privately for weeks. | ||
| It was yesterday on ABC this week that House Speaker Mike Johnson explained his reasoning for continuing to have the House out of session. | ||
| The Democrats did not vote for the clean funding bill. | ||
| They have chosen to shut the government down to fight for the health care and the other items you mentioned. | ||
| But let me ask you, why, as this is going on, why is the House not in session? | ||
| Well, first of all, we're fighting for health care as well, not just in word, but indeed. | ||
| We put it in the one big beautiful bill, the Working Families Tax Cut, real reforms to Medicaid to make it work better to preserve the program because we had illegal aliens receiving benefits. | ||
| We had young, able-bodied men who are not working. | ||
| They don't have dependents. | ||
| They were riding the wagon. | ||
| We cleaned that up in our bill. | ||
| In their counterproposal, what Chuck Schumer is arguing for is he wants to reverse those reforms, which would be a terrible policy decision for the people. | ||
| But I'm actually asking a different question. | ||
| So, why is the House not in session? | ||
| I mean, I cover day to day those previous shutdowns, including the one you mentioned in 2013. | ||
| I recall there were House hearings during that shutdown about how President Obama was handling the shutdown. | ||
| Why is the House not in session? | ||
| The House did its job exactly a month ago today on September 19th. | ||
| We passed the clean resolution. | ||
| The continued resolution would keep the lights on, keep the government working for the people. | ||
| By the way, keep Border Patrol agents paid, our troops paid, you know, air traffic controllers, all the rest, all the services that go to veterans and young women who need nutrition assistance for their infants. | ||
| The Democrats, every single one of them, have now voted 11 times, except for three Democrats in the Senate. | ||
| They voted 11 times to shut down the government and cease and halt all of those services and programs. | ||
| But I'm still understanding why the House is not in session. | ||
| You passed a seven-week temporary funding bill. | ||
| Is that the entirety of the Republican agenda? | ||
| No, it is. | ||
| No, it is not. | ||
| But I refuse to allow us to come back and engage in anything until the government's reopened when the Democrats do the right thing for the people. | ||
| They're playing politics, and we have to use every ounce of leverage we have to make sure they do the right thing. | ||
| It was House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies, also on ABC this week yesterday, explaining the Democrats' position and saying that Republicans have gone radio silent since the negotiations started. | ||
| Here is a clip from that. | ||
| The president said he would make a deal, you know, reopening the government for something on the Obamacare or the American, the Affordable Care Act subsidies. | ||
| Have you tried to call President Trump directly on this? | ||
| I do know he picks up that phone pretty regularly. | ||
| Have you tried to call him directly? | ||
| We have repeatedly and publicly and privately made clear to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle that we will sit down with them anytime, any place, with anyone, either at the Capitol or back at the Oval Office, to reopen the government, find a bipartisan path toward enacting a spending agreement that actually improves the quality of life of the American people, | ||
| while at the same time decisively addressing the Republican health care crisis that's devastating people throughout the country, working class America, rural America, urban America, small town America, the heartland of America, and of course, black and brown communities throughout America. | ||
| But we haven't heard anything from Donald Trump or the Republicans over the last few weeks. | ||
| They have gone radio silent since the Oval Office meeting. | ||
| In fact, we know Donald Trump has spent more time on the golf course over the last few weeks during this painful government shutdown than he has speaking to Democrats on Capitol Hill to try to find a bipartisan resolution. | ||
| And as you pointed out earlier with Speaker Johnson, House Republicans are now heading into their fourth week of vacation. | ||
| They continue to cancel votes. | ||
| They have no interest in doing the business of the American people, and that's unfortunate. | ||
| We are starting today's Washington Journal with your calls on this day 20 of the government shut down the lines there in your screen. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you are a federal worker, there's a line for you. | ||
| That number is 202-748-8003. | ||
| We will start with Sip, who's calling from Houston on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Sip. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| All right. | ||
| I'm going to speak from 20,000 feet above. | ||
| If everybody can remember back when President Obama came out with health care, everybody knows that the Republicans don't want health care. | ||
| They don't care about health care. | ||
| I mean, just there it is right there. | ||
| All right. | ||
| One other thing. | ||
| Donald Trump, The Republicans jumped on Bill Clinton for just meeting his attorney general at an airport. | ||
| President Biden went, aborted the DOJ by appointing a special prosecutor. | ||
| And I mean, that the Republicans have demonized the Mexican immigrant and got people thinking that they are the cause of all our problem when they are not. | ||
| They need to, I wish you would get somebody on there to set how much revenue tax that the immigrants pays in versus what they get. | ||
| And that was Sip in Houston. | ||
| Eugene is calling from Tucson, Arizona on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Eugene. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, good morning. | |
| I blame both parties for the government shutdown. | ||
| I'm so disappointed with the state of America. | ||
| In July, I did something very desperate. | ||
| On July 3rd, I went to the country of Belize and I applied for asylum there against the United States. | ||
| I had my hearing the same day they denied my asylum and I was placed in the Belize Central Prison where I was tortured there every single day. | ||
| And then I was deported back to Tucson, Arizona on August 20th. | ||
| So I'm just sharing my story about how desperate I am and how disappointed I am with the United States government. | ||
| Eugene, clarify for me. | ||
| Why were you seeking asylum? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was seeking asylum in Belize because I'm disappointed with the state of the United States right now. | |
| And I also wanted to become Prime Minister of Belize so I could find a friend. | ||
| That was Eugene in Arizona. | ||
| Micah calling from Dallas, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Micah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just have a simple question to pose to Mr. Mike Johnson. | ||
| So you said that the people who participated in the march on Saturday were Antifa members. | ||
| Can we fairly say that the people that you freed and you and Trump freed for January 6th were Clantifa? | ||
| Think about it. | ||
| That's food for thought. | ||
| They've been following a Jefferson-Davidsonian agenda and needs to be looked at because there's much more to this. | ||
| God bless America. | ||
| That was Micah in Texas. | ||
| Selena is calling from Rochester, New York. | ||
| Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Selena. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Someone is crazy. | ||
| The Republicans get everything that they wanted in the one big, beautiful bill. | ||
| And now they expect Democrats to support and vote for getting nothing. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Selena in New York. | ||
| David's calling from San Francisco. | ||
| Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, David. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, morning, America. | |
| Yeah, I'm glad she reminded about us, reminded us about the big bad bill. | ||
| That's the Doge cuts included in this. | ||
| So although I don't want to blame the government shutdown on Democrats, I'm glad that they're standing firm that this budget is including those horrible Doge cuts. | ||
| Now, the other thing I was going to raise, since Donald Trump and his father were slumlords, the management of America under them, or under him, is the management of a slumlord. | ||
| He doesn't want to fix America. | ||
| He doesn't want to fix our property. | ||
| He just wants to weasel around and pretend that he's the grand vizier over the property, except he's supposed to be a public servant. | ||
| He's not supposed to be a grand vizier. | ||
| He's supposed to be a public servant that's making sure that the potholes are fixed, the libraries are working, the schools are working. | ||
| But he's a slumlord, a slumlord by nature. | ||
| And then the slumlord hung around with organized crime for 40 years and created the opportunity to cash in, put cronies all over America. | ||
| And when he invades these cities, he's creating new territories for his organized crime buddies. | ||
| When he creates these tariffs, he's creating smuggling and he's creating opportunities for his organized crime buddies. | ||
| So this is not political. | ||
| It's organized crime, and it's organized crime run by a slum lord. | ||
| That was David in San Francisco. | ||
| Let's hear from Steve in Massachusetts, Line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Steve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking the call. | ||
| I'd just like to thank the president, slumlord president, for not taking a paycheck and everything that he's doing for the country. | ||
| I'd also make a point that is the government actually shut down the people that voted to shut it down are still taking a paycheck. | ||
| And as far as the Affordable Care Act goes and subsidies for Medicare or whatever you want to call it, I thought Obama fixed all of that. | ||
| Isn't that what the Affordable Care Act was all about? | ||
| That their health care products weren't going to go up, but yet now we're playing this game of, how do you say it, politics where people are trying to do their jobs while other people are standing on street corners yelling, no kings, no kings. | ||
| That was Steve in Massachusetts. | ||
| Barbara is calling from Lexington, Kentucky. | ||
| Good morning, Barbara. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I'm calling about our representatives. | |
| If they cannot work together to work out a budget in time, and then they can't agree to things for the people, they're the ones who shouldn't get a paycheck. | ||
| I'm not a speaker, a public speaker, but I am listening to what's going on in Washington, and it is just a terrible mess. | ||
| And I think our president has forgotten that he is our employee. | ||
| He doesn't look at it that way. | ||
| And I am very disappointed in him. | ||
| I may not be a Republican, but I am an American, and I expect him to be the president of all Americans. | ||
| I thank you for the time. | ||
| That was Barbara in Kentucky. | ||
| The Senate expected to take their 11th vote this evening about 5.30 on that House passed Republican short-term funding plan. | ||
| It was Senate Majority Leader John Thune who tweeted this on Friday saying, I'm not sure how much clearer I can be, but let me give it a try. | ||
| I am willing to sit down with Democrats to discuss the growing unaffordability and unsustainability of Obamacare. | ||
| It's a system they created, but I'm happy to hear them out. | ||
| Heck, I'm even willing to give them a vote today, tomorrow, next week, you name it. | ||
| But there's one condition, end the Schumer shutdown. | ||
| I will not negotiate under hostage conditions, nor will I pay a ransom. | ||
| Period. | ||
| It was Senator Arizona, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, who responded to that post by John Thrune yesterday on CBS-based the Nation. | ||
| Here's that clip. | ||
| Can you bank this as a win and agree to start negotiations? | ||
| That's what we want. | ||
| We want negotiations on how to fix how to, I didn't look at his tweet, but what we need is to fix this skyrocketing premium. | ||
| They're going to go up on November 1st for people. | ||
| They can't afford it. | ||
| People in my state. | ||
| I've talked to so many people. | ||
| This woman, Emily, whose husband's a pastor, who has three kids, says without the Affordable Care Act, she cannot have insurance for her children. | ||
| They don't get it through his work. | ||
| So what we need to do is fix this health care premium issue and open the government. | ||
| But don't you need to do that before November 1st when premiums go up? | ||
| Are you going to end the shutdown before November 1st? | ||
| We should be able to wrap this up this week if they will sit down and have a negotiation with us. | ||
| The president has spent one hour negotiating this issue with leadership in Congress. | ||
| That's it, one hour. | ||
| They need to get in the room and stay in the room until we can hash this out. | ||
| The president has said he wants to fix this premium thing and he wants the government open. | ||
| That's what we want. | ||
| Wayne is calling from Bluefield, West Virginia, Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Wayne. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I just am a Vietnam Mayor veteran. | ||
| Sad to see the government not work together. | ||
| They seem to be really cowardly in their approach. | ||
| No one wants to talk. | ||
| I remember back when Tip O'Neill was in the speaker, they could work together. | ||
| We girls who's in the House. | ||
| Yet Congress has no sacrifices. | ||
| They continue to get paid again to travel at the taxpayers' time, and yet they don't want to pay federal employees who are doing their job. | ||
| I just hope that Congress will come to their senses and at least discuss things, not try to hold each other hostage over one single issue. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Wayne in West Virginia. | ||
| This is Thomas calling from Fresno, California on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Thomas. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| You know, yesterday I participated in the No Kings protest here in Fresno, California. | ||
| And what I observed was thousands of American citizens that are voters. | ||
| Mike Johnson, Hakeem Jeffries. | ||
| You know, the game is cool when they sit and they're getting paid on taxpayer dollars. | ||
| They have health care on taxpayer dollars. | ||
| But then those individuals that paid taxes are denied services because we vote for individuals to have what we can't have. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I thought I voted for them to go to Washington to make sure that my needs were met, not to basically seek power for themselves, wealth for themselves. | |
| The insider trading is starting to get a little ridiculous here in America, where we, the taxpayers, the voters, send these individuals to Washington to do nothing for us. | ||
| But the corporations seem to glean from their power, not the people of the United States of America. | ||
| When are we going to wake up as voters, as citizens of this great nation, and put an end to this? | ||
| Thank you very much, and everyone have a nice day. | ||
| That was Thomas in California. | ||
| It is day 20 of the government shutdown. | ||
| That is our topic for this first hour of Washington Journal. | ||
| You can give us a call if you'd like to weigh in on the discussion. | ||
| The lines, Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002, 8002. | ||
| And a reminder, if you are a federal worker, you can call in at 202-748-8003. | ||
| It is the 20th day of the shutdown. | ||
| As a reminder, the funding expired on September 30th at midnight. | ||
| It's the 21st lapse of federal funding and shutdowns since the 1980s, the fourth during a Trump administration. | ||
| The longest shutdown lasted 35 days. | ||
| It went from December 22nd of 2008 to January 25th of 2019. | ||
| This morning, Punch Bowl News noting that it is the third longest shutdown in U.S. history. | ||
| It's already the longest full government shutdown ever. | ||
| That 2018-2019 was a partial shutdown. | ||
| And the 1995-90 spit 96, which was the second longest and lasted 21 days, that was also a partial shutdown. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| James calling from Alexandria, Virginia, who is a federal worker. | ||
| Good morning, James. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yes, ma'am. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Go ahead, James. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, so there's a number of concerns here, I think, that are longer term that we're not really accounting for here. | |
| Yes, there's short-term impacts to federal employees, to the functions of the government that deliver to the people day in, day out. | ||
| It's also longer-term impacts. | ||
| If you have everybody out of work for a month, programs can be delayed two, three, four, five months just because of that trickle-down effect. | ||
| So you're delaying services from the government to the people longer term as well. | ||
| And then, third, every day that the government is shut down, you're also impacting the perception of U.S. markets, whether that's climate to invest in or it's the willingness of a company to take a risk. | ||
| You're impacting that slightly by not having reliability in the federal government in that way. | ||
| So there's a number of longer-term impacts there from these shutdowns that are cyclical, right? | ||
| This may be headed towards being one of the longer ones, but this has happened frequently. | ||
| So what I would like to see, who I think a lot of folks would be supportive of, is what measures can Congress or the government put in place to prevent these in the future or to at least mitigate these in the future. | ||
| You know, maybe that's a tool of negotiation for the majority here, but it's sorely needed because there's a lot of downstream impacts that are hurting the country. | ||
| James, what's your status right now? | ||
| Are you furloughed or are you going to work still? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| I'm working currently. | ||
| Again, I'm calling in here as a private citizen. | ||
| That was James in Alexandria, Virginia. | ||
| Carol is calling from Massachusetts on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Carol. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm saying this, making a statement for the American people. | ||
| American people, this is on you. | ||
| You did this because you voted this congressman in. | ||
| All these congressmen have been in power and have been voted in for years and years and years. | ||
| What you need to do is start voting them out and vote for more independents or people who are more moderate in their thinking and not far right or far left. | ||
| So people like Schumer, I'm so tired of listening to him. | ||
| He's what, 44 years in Congress or something? | ||
| And what does he do? | ||
| Nothing but cause trouble. | ||
| You need to vote these people out and vote for younger, more knowledgeable, younger people who know what's going on and have more business sense. | ||
| So you did this to yourself, American people. | ||
| And I do agree with one thing. | ||
| I do not think we should be paying health care for illegal immigrants. | ||
| And I know you don't have the time, but I have two or three incidents that have happened where American people have had to be set aside and wait in emergency rooms so the staff could take care of people who are illegal and not even here for, you know, have a job or doing everything else, but just using our tax money. | ||
| So vote these people out. | ||
| Get rid of them next time. | ||
| You did it to yourself, American people. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Carol. | ||
| And this is from Fox News. | ||
| It says, President Donald Trump blasted Democrats for prolonging the government shutdown in an interview on Sunday, vowing to permanently eliminate what he called Democratic, quote, welfare programs. | ||
| He went on to say that Trump argued that Democrats lack strong leadership and viable candidates for an upcoming election. | ||
| He said that the shutdown stalemate gives him leverage to cut billions of programs in programs Republicans have long wanted to eliminate. | ||
| That is from an interview yesterday on Sunday Morning Futures. | ||
| Here is a clip from that interview. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you think that the government shutdown is all about this rally that's happening this weekend, the no kings rally? | |
| No, I mean, some people say they want to delay it for that. | ||
| King, this is not a king. | ||
| You know, they're saying they're referring to me as a king. | ||
| I'm not a king. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| No, but just so that Chuck Schumer could go and say, I'm fighting Trump. | ||
| Well, Chuck is, you know, at the end of the line. | ||
| He's being beaten by everybody that they poll against him. | ||
| And, you know, what he did is he did the right thing a couple of years ago on something like this. | ||
| And he got hurt by his party. | ||
| And it doesn't, I don't think it matters to him. | ||
| I think he's just so dead that he'll do anything. | ||
| I think they could just stay out forever. | ||
| I mean, to be honest with you, now, what we're doing is we're cutting Democrat programs that we didn't want because, I mean, they made one mistake. | ||
| They didn't realize that that gives me the right to cut programs that Republicans never wanted. | ||
| You know, giveaways, welfare programs, et cetera. | ||
| And we're doing that, and we're cutting them permanently. | ||
| We're cutting a $20 billion project that Schumer fought for 15 years to get. | ||
| And I'm cutting the project. | ||
| The project is going to be dead. | ||
| It is pretty much dead right now. | ||
| Barbara is calling from Columbus, Ohio, on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Barbara. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm calling about what the Democrats should be talking about, and so should the media. | ||
| Fox News is nothing but propaganda. | ||
| And what we need to be talking about is the reason for the shutdown. | ||
| And it had to do with the fact that they did not want the Epstein files made public. | ||
| And that's also the reason that The Republicans will not swear in the new Democratic candidate from out west because she has the last vote. | ||
| Who would cause these files to be made public? | ||
| And SCOTUS is the biggest problem because they're the ones who are giving Trump all the power that he needs. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Barbara in Ohio. | ||
| Robert is calling from Illinois, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
My call. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Can you hear me? | ||
| Yes, go ahead, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, thank you. | |
| Well, I hate to say this, but Donald Trump, he may not actually be a king, but he's acting like a gangster, which pretty much has the same connotations. | ||
| I mean, just look at the people that he's pardoned already. | ||
| They're all criminals. | ||
| And George Santos, the GN6 combatants, Rob Ligorovich, Proud Boys, Old Keith. | ||
| And the list goes on. | ||
| And he's turned the government into his own personal group of criminals also. | ||
| Talking about he doesn't take a salary, Donald Trump. | ||
| Who needs a salary when you can embezzle money from the American people in other ways? | ||
| So as far as I'm concerned, the country would be better off without Donald Trump ever since he came down that escalator. | ||
| Actually, even before he was a criminal. | ||
| And that's why there's so much attention. | ||
| Or, I mean, if it was the same thing with Al Capone, you know, they went after him, too, because they knew he was a criminal doing criminal activities. | ||
| That was Robert in Illinois. | ||
| Robert mentioning George Santos, who President Trump pardoned last week. | ||
| Former Congressman Santos was on Fox News yesterday talking about the commutation. | ||
| Here is a clip from that interview. | ||
| So you were convicted of identity theft and wire fraud, basically misusing the funds that donors have given you. | ||
| Thank you for personal reasons. | ||
| Why shouldn't you have served out your full term? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Look, Charlie, I understand people want to make this into a he's getting away with it. | |
| Right. | ||
| I'm not getting away with it. | ||
| I was the first person to ever go to federal prison for this type of civil FEC violation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
These are usually solved in penalties. | |
| And I don't want to focus on trying to rehash the past. | ||
| I want to take this experience and do good and move on with the future. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Repentance is an understatement. | |
| It's like I have been dealt a second chance. | ||
| I have a lot to prove to a lot of people. | ||
| And I have to make sure President Trump understands that I am not going to disappoint him. | ||
| We have been taking your calls on this, the 20th day of the government shutdown. | ||
| We are opening up the phone lines to open form. | ||
| If there's a public policy issue you would like to talk about, you can go ahead and give us a call. | ||
| The lines, Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can continue talking about the government shutdown, or if there's another issue, please join us for the discussion. | ||
| This was sent in on X asking, is the construction of the Trump ballroom on hold during the government shutdown? | ||
| Our producer, Leslie, letting us know, this is from People Magazine, White House will continue construction on its 90,000-foot square foot ballroom during the government shutdown. | ||
| It says that on Wednesday after the shutdown, A White House official said that despite the shutdown, there will be no stoppage of a ballroom work when the shutdown occurs. | ||
| According to the White House Office of Management and Budget Memo, the ballroom's construction is being funded by President Donald Trump and other private donors, meaning that it is not impacted by the federal budget negotiations that spurned the shutdown. | ||
| Let's talk with John, who is calling from North Carolina on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, thank you. | |
| Take my call. | ||
| They call this the Affordable Care Act. | ||
| Why is it not affordable? | ||
| I mean, I don't understand they're calling for something that they named it the Affordable Care Act. | ||
| So, I mean, if it's affordable, that means you're supposed to be able to get it. | ||
| It's affordable. | ||
| But, you know, that's a lie. | ||
| And all the Republicans, but one's voting for opening it. | ||
| And the Democrats is voting no. | ||
| Who's shutting down the government? | ||
| What if they all say no? | ||
| But they're trying to get it open because it takes 60 votes to get it open. | ||
| I don't understand how people can say it. | ||
| You know, that's crazy. | ||
| It's crazy. | ||
| John, are you? | ||
| Do you buy your insurance on the ACA marketplace? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, I don't. | |
| I buy mine through Aetna. | ||
| Well, I guess that's the marketplace. | ||
| Yes, I get mine through Aetna. | ||
| No problems. | ||
| And I don't understand why they name it the Affordable Care Act, yet they want millions of dollars for that. | ||
| That was John in North Carolina. | ||
| George is calling from West Virginia on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, George. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was going to ask your listeners if I can't remember the congressman's name or what station it was on, but this weekend, a Republican congressman said that he had proposed to some of the Democrats for a one-year extension of, I think he said, the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, and they said no. | |
| And so I hear the Democrats get up and say, there's no negotiations. | ||
| We want negotiations, but there was one. | ||
| And another thing about Social Security, I understand that Congress has been using the Social Security money that's coming into the government and it's not being saved. | ||
| And I think Congress should pass a bill to have a Social Security lockbox. | ||
| I heard this talked about before where all the money coming in for Social Security can only be used for Social Security, not used up for something else. | ||
| Because I don't know, maybe your listeners will know, but I understand that in a few years, Social Security is going to be out of money and the benefits will automatically be cut. | ||
| One more thing. | ||
| You know, all this bickering and back and forth about the budget and this and that, I don't understand why the Democrats would want to add over a trillion dollars to our debt. | ||
| But I think Congress should pass a badgent balanced budget amendment. | ||
| And maybe that would take care of all this bickering about the money. | ||
| That was George in West Virginia. | ||
| Betty is calling from Texas on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Betty. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, we're talking about money. | |
| That's how Trump does talk about money. | ||
| Everywhere he goes, it's money, money, money. | ||
| The ballroom that he's trying to build, why would he be building a ballroom in the White House? | ||
| Can you hear me? | ||
| Yes, I can, Betty. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| He's spending all that money on a big, beautiful gold ballroom. | ||
| What is that about? | ||
| He's going to party the rest of the life of the American people. | ||
| Everything he does is about money. | ||
| Everybody is listening to Trump. | ||
| Trump is the one that's got his thumb on everything. | ||
| They can't make a move because he won't let them. | ||
| If they're looking at him to reopen the government, they're just going to have to wait until Trump decides what he wants to do. | ||
| Johnson and none of them are going to do anything unless this man comes to realization or the American people come to the realization that Trump is running everything. | ||
| The Supreme Court gave him power, and everybody knows that's not right. | ||
| They need to abolish the Supreme Court because the American people is the one that are paying. | ||
| He's done everything since he's been back in that White House for himself and his family. | ||
| He steadied running to meet with Putin every other month. | ||
| What is that about? | ||
| Nothing is getting done. | ||
| I think he's getting information from Putin on how to run the organization that he has for the American people. | ||
| People wake up. | ||
| You have nothing but a demonic man in the White House running our country. | ||
| It's going to take it down. | ||
| That was Betty in Texas. | ||
| And Betty, a couple other callers this morning bringing up those ACA tax credits. | ||
| The extension of them is at the heart of the shutdown right now. | ||
| It was yesterday on Fox News Sunday that California Congressman RoConna spoke about this issue. | ||
| Here's a clip. | ||
| The fact is, Democrats set the deadline for this December 31st. | ||
| They were supposed to get us through COVID. | ||
| Now people have become dependent on them because insurance is so expensive. | ||
| So why extend it now when it was always supposed to sunset? | ||
| Look, I agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene. | ||
| The health care system is born. | ||
| Wait, I never thought I'd hear you say that about anything. | ||
| Do you ever think those words would come out of your mouth? | ||
| She said the cost of living insurance is terrible. | ||
| They're ripping off the American people. | ||
| Premiums have gone up. | ||
| That's why I believe we need single-payer health care with Medicare for all in this country. | ||
| But we have to deal with the here and now. | ||
| And the reality is, if we don't do anything on November 1st, people's premiums are going to double if they're on the exchanges. | ||
| 24 million Americans. | ||
| And I don't think the president wants that. | ||
| I mean, the president has said he doesn't want that. | ||
| So let's get these subsidies extended and then let's think after that on a long-term fix for health care. | ||
| Could there be a deal where if the president or majority leader Thunder, the speaker come to you and say, okay, we will extend the subsidies, say, for a year, if you'll vote to reopen the government, is that a deal you would take? | ||
| I think we're open. | ||
| I mean, my view is that there should be permanent extension of the health care just like there were permanent tax breaks for the billionaires. | ||
| But we're open to conversation. | ||
| Our side has been open to conversation. | ||
| First, we've got to be here. | ||
| And secondly, we need to have some proposal. | ||
| I mean, Michael Lawler came, confronted Speaker Jeffries saying, okay, I'm for a one-year extension. | ||
| He hasn't gotten his own leadership on board with that. | ||
| So let's at least have an actual proposal. | ||
| A caller bringing up a proposal to extend the ACA tax subsidies for one year, just like in that interview. | ||
| This is from the Hill from a few weeks ago. | ||
| It says House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday defended his opposition to a one-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, a proposal backed by a handful of moderate Republicans as part of an effort to reopen the government. | ||
| It points out that that was proposed by Jennifer Kiggins, a Republican of Virginia, but again, that has been rejected. | ||
| Mark is calling from New York, Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Mark. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| First, I'd like to thank all the people who came out for the No Kings protest wherever you were, whatever you did, a sacrifice. | ||
| I went there, but I didn't go there for myself. | ||
| I went there for people who can't go themselves. | ||
| But that's going to be at least a start. | ||
| Okay, so thank you to all the No Kings, peaceful people like myself. | ||
| We are super peaceful people. | ||
| We just want to end some of this chaotic stuff that's going on. | ||
| Now, as far as a health care problem, it's not a health care problem we have in America. | ||
| It is a rich doctor's problem. | ||
| It's been brought up. | ||
| Why is health care less expensive in other countries? | ||
| Because doctors don't charge as much. | ||
| Doctors charge a fortune in this country. | ||
| And that's what drives up the health care costs. | ||
| As far as Trump saying he's not a king, he is correct. | ||
| He is a wannabe king. | ||
| That's what the protest is about, about having no more kings. | ||
| Our last king was King George III. | ||
| Okay, he brought the troops in in 1776 or 1768. | ||
| He brought the troops, right? | ||
| And it wasn't until 1775 until the people had enough. | ||
| So we have had enough of this right now. | ||
| What Trump is doing, all what he's doing. | ||
| He's just picking on poor people. | ||
| He wants the poor people to go away. | ||
| Just go away. | ||
| He has no use for poor people. | ||
| He can't do business with poor people. | ||
| He wants nothing to do with them. | ||
| All his buddies are rich people, like the lady said. | ||
| Money, money, money. | ||
| Rich people can't get enough money. | ||
| When you ask a rich person, how much is enough? | ||
| It's never enough. | ||
| For a rich person, it's never enough. | ||
| Okay, thank you. | ||
| Goodbye. | ||
| That was Mark in New York. | ||
| Mary is calling from Michigan on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Mary. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| I just want to voice my opinion. | ||
| I've never done this before, but I get sick and tired of every morning listening to these Democrats putting down their president. | ||
| They should not be put under president down like they are. | ||
| I see no purpose in that no keys. | ||
| I don't. | ||
| I don't see nothing but people violence in the street in California and New York. | ||
| What is that doing for their party? | ||
| Ma'am, President Trump has been put down ever since he stepped down in steps by CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNN. | ||
| And I don't understand all this. | ||
| I really don't understand how they can sit there and put him down knowing what he has done for the people. | ||
| He has done a lot in his nine months of being there. | ||
| I just don't understand it. | ||
| Mary, you said this was your first time calling in. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| How long have you been watching the program? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've watched it all along, but it's gotten more and more radical against Republicans. | |
| Ma'am, that is not right. | ||
| If you're going to put down everybody, it calls on there because they're a Republican. | ||
| She'll put you off. | ||
| She'll take you off the air because she cuts you off all the time. | ||
| I don't particularly like that. | ||
| Our president is what we're supposed to be honoring, not putting down. | ||
| That was Mary from Michigan calling in for the first time. | ||
| We do like hearing from first-time callers. | ||
| If you're sitting there and thinking about calling in, you haven't done it before, please join the discussion. | ||
| Let's hear from Bradley who's calling from Michigan, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Bradley. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning. | |
| Yeah, glad to follow that call. | ||
| I'll certainly cancel that vote out. | ||
| I have no idea where that's coming from. | ||
| But anyway, I would like someone to put together a list of the 100 most commonly purchased grocery items and just index the price monthly, put that on display. | ||
| And so it's not just focused on egg prices. | ||
| We all know there's much more than that. | ||
| I'm not able technically to do that kind of thing. | ||
| I have had the idea since he got elected just to balance out the claims that are just untrue like so many other things. | ||
| The second thing is 70 million non-voters. | ||
| Anyone out there listening, just what is your problem? | ||
| The MAGA people, at least they vote. | ||
| I don't agree with anything they're doing, but at least they are voting. | ||
| And people that didn't vote or don't choose to vote, I don't know. | ||
| You're terrible Americans, you know. | ||
| So anyway, and the last thing quickly is the Democratic Party should just put an appeal out to young people. | ||
| I mean, that is where the party is. | ||
| I'm an old guy. | ||
| I have children that are in their 30s, and we just have to do more for them and get it out there. | ||
| One thing is Social Security. | ||
| It's not just with people that are drawing it right now. | ||
| It's for the people that are working in their 30s, 40s, 50s. | ||
| Assure them it's going to be strong. | ||
| It's going to be there. | ||
| There's a reason that you're contributing. | ||
| And work on gun control and climate change and so many issues, but they retreat behind it. | ||
| Health care for all. | ||
| Why isn't that it? | ||
| Just nibble around the corners with Obamacare. | ||
| It's ridiculous. | ||
| We're ready for health care for all. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Bradley in Michigan. | ||
| John is calling from Virginia, lying for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Can you hear me okay? | ||
| Yes, go ahead, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Very good. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| I'm calling today with, actually, I'm not taking sides. | ||
| I don't think we get anywhere with that. | ||
| I'm calling with a proposal. | ||
| And I'm hoping some lawmaker is tuned in to listen to this this morning. | ||
| As I walk around and talk to people, I ask a question. | ||
| I ask, do you know what amount of money it costs to run our federal government each year? | ||
| And I'm surprised at the number of adults who just take wild guesses. | ||
| So I did Chat GPT studies or research this past week, and here are the facts that I found via ChatGPT. | ||
| In 2024, it cost $6.75 trillion to run the government. | ||
| We collected, through taxes, income tax, and so on, $4.9 trillion. | ||
| That leaves us with a deficit of $1.8 trillion. | ||
| So we had to borrow nearly $2 trillion last year. | ||
| In essence, think about it. | ||
| We put it on the government credit card. | ||
| We had to borrow $2 trillion in order to operate last year. | ||
| Well, this wasn't the first year that happened. | ||
| This has been a continuum now for decades. | ||
| The total amount on that credit card is $37 trillion. | ||
| And we pay $1 trillion or thereabout in interest every single year on that credit card. | ||
| Now, if you put this in a personal sense, neither Democrats nor Republicans nor independents would ever operate their financial, personal life or their family finances that way. | ||
| So from the Republicans' point of view, it's time to tighten our belts. | ||
| And I am a Republican. | ||
| It's time to tighten our belts and cut costs. | ||
| So we have to look inward and see where we could save money, so to speak. | ||
| John, where do you think cuts should be made? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, that's what I'm getting to here. | |
| The reason for my call is I believe cuts should be made, number one. | ||
| But I think the biggest cut that can be made to answer your question directly is in health care. | ||
| And I'm going to get to that here in a moment. | ||
| I just wanted to set the stage with the facts. | ||
| These are the facts. | ||
| $6.75 to operate, $4.9 billion in revenue, and we're just adding to the credit card. | ||
| So what is my proposal? | ||
| Well, I suggest, and this sort of touches on an earlier call that you had that said that there was no intention on the Democrats' part to extend this another year. | ||
| But here it goes. | ||
| Here's my proposal. | ||
| Pass a continuing resolution with an additional $35 billion attached to it. | ||
| Now, I'm sure people are going, what, you're nuts. | ||
| You're actually adding to the debt? | ||
| The answer is no, I'm not. | ||
| This is a zero additional cost suggestion. | ||
| Pass a continuing resolution with an additional $35 billion. | ||
| Well, where do you get this $35 billion? | ||
| Well, the $35 billion, according to ChatGPT, is the cost of the Affordable Care Act subsidy for one year. | ||
| Well, why one year? | ||
| Well, we all know from prior administrations trying to fix the health care system that it isn't going to be fixed by the end of this year or next month or seven weeks from now. | ||
| It's going to take a good year for both the Democrats and the Republicans to sit at the same table, roll up their sleeves, call out for pizza, stay in Washington, don't come back home to Gladhand for votes. | ||
| Stay there and fix this. | ||
| Fix health care. | ||
| So $35 billion is the cost for one year. | ||
| Where are you going to get the $35 billion from? | ||
| Well, if you look at the budget, there's a line item called discretionary budget. | ||
| Discretionary, meaning you could spend it on, I don't know, pet projects. | ||
| I'm not all that skilled at knowing what the discretionary budget is. | ||
| But what I did find out is it's $750 billion. | ||
| So take the $35 from the $750 billion, and you have a solution here that extends the time period for one year to work on health care. | ||
| And back to your question to me. | ||
| Why that one? | ||
| Well, when I ask adults, what's the biggest expenditure in our budget, the answer is always the military, the military. | ||
| Well, no, the military is. | ||
| Okay, well we'll leave it there, John. | ||
| We'll go to David, calling from Vancouver, Washington, on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, David. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I agree with the call before. | ||
| And my point is we're spending so many billions of dollars every year supporting Argentina, supporting Israel, supporting Ukraine and other countries. | ||
| We have to get our priorities straight. | ||
| The American people come first, the health care. | ||
| So my point is this is not United States of Israel. | ||
| This is United States of America last time I checked. | ||
| So we could have enough money for our people first, and we should then be borrowing money to help other countries like Israel since 1948. | ||
| So that's where it's got to stop. | ||
| Thank you for taking Michael. | ||
| Have a good day. | ||
| That was David in Washington State. | ||
| Steve is calling from Ohio on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Steve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just wanted to say there's 902 billionaires in the country, according to Forbes magazine. | ||
| That's up from 813 from last year. | ||
| So an increase of 89 billionaires. | ||
| So now, okay, so the country's being run by 902 billionaires. | ||
| You can't give us like 24, 25 million Americans who use the Affordable Care Act. | ||
| You can't give us that. | ||
| I mean, I wouldn't have been able to retire in 2021 if it wasn't for the Affordable Care Act. | ||
| And thank God for John McCain putting his thumb down because I believe the president, President Donald J. Trump, this is just a grudge match for him. | ||
| He just hates President Barack Obama so much that he has to take it out on us because he has no plan. | ||
| He has no replacement plan. | ||
| If they did, they would talk about it, bring something to the table to help the American people. | ||
| I wouldn't have been able to afford $1,800 a month premium. | ||
| I just got on Medicare, my wife and I. | ||
| So, yeah, but for the rest of the people who need it, I mean, yeah, you do have to keep your income down. | ||
| You have to keep it down to, you know, 60 grand, 65 grand to get subsidy or whatever. | ||
| You got to manage your bills. | ||
| But it helped. | ||
| It was something that helped the American people. | ||
| This is just a retribution, like President Trump said many times. | ||
| He's our retribution president or he's taken out vengeance. | ||
| Oh, great. | ||
| Thanks a lot. | ||
| But the other thing I want to mention is tariffs. | ||
| Tariffs are a tax. | ||
| Every economist says they are, and we're feeling it. | ||
| He's taxing us without our consent. | ||
| I hope the Supreme Court knocks him down on November 5th about it because he doesn't have the power to tax us like he's doing. | ||
| It's Article 1 powers, the Congress. | ||
| Congress, take back your power, the power of the purse, the power to levy taxes. | ||
| It's not executive power. | ||
| It is not. | ||
| And so, you know, let's get back to the separation of powers. | ||
| This is where the real problem is right now. | ||
| That was Steve in Ohio. | ||
| This is a headline in Axios this morning. | ||
| It says, U.S. scrambles to save Gaza peace deal amid new clashes. | ||
| It says that Israel conducted airstrikes in Gaza on Sunday after Hamas militants fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli soldiers. | ||
| The IDF said in a statement, says the clashes were the most serious escalation since the ceasefire came into force. | ||
| The Trump administration is trying to prevent further incidents that would lead to the collapse of the agreement. | ||
| Says that the IDF said the incident happened on Sunday morning local time when Hamas militants came out of a tunnel in the Rafah area, which is still mostly controlled by the Israeli military, and launched an anti-tank missile at an IDF vehicle. | ||
| Two Israeli soldiers were killed. | ||
| It also notes that Hamas militant wings denied any involvement in the incident in Rafah and emphasized it's fully committed to the ceasefire. | ||
| Just a few minutes left in this first hour of Washington Journal. | ||
| Let's hear from Sherry, who's calling from Maryland, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Sherry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| This is my first call in, and I'm actually pretty shocked at the lack of facts that have been represented in all the calls. | ||
| There is very easy solutions to this. | ||
| I think a lot of people have said it. | ||
| The tax structure is totally out of whack in this country. | ||
| It's pretty clear. | ||
| I am very upset, by the way, because I would like to see the Democrats come back and vote because I think that as the individuals are starting to talk about their premium changes, the Republicans will be forced to look at it. | ||
| But the lies, it's just overwhelming. | ||
| The amount of lies, Johnson saying, oh, it's because of illegal immigrants. | ||
| People forget that they pay taxes. | ||
| They can't even benefit from the monies that they have paid in for the obvious reasons. | ||
| I just wish for our country. | ||
| I'm in my 70s. | ||
| I would never have thought that I would leave this world with a country in the way that it is today. | ||
| The disrespect that is shown when all the hearings on Congress, you listen to the DOJ, you listen to even Trump's now disgruntled, fired employees talking about what's going on in DOJ, the FBI. | ||
| We have the most unqualified individuals heading up the different cabinets, et cetera. | ||
| And I'm very sad for this country. | ||
| I think people have to wake up and stop battling and look at the reality check of the solutions which are right before us. | ||
| We need to change the tax structure. | ||
| People who have more money need to pay in more. | ||
| And Donald Trump, Donald Trump, has got to stop his routine. | ||
| He would have been in jail if there had been more time. | ||
| And sadly, one day, I suspect if he's still alive, he may still be behind bars one of these days. | ||
| I'm just sad. | ||
| I am sad for our country. | ||
| That was Sherry in Maryland. | ||
| Eric, calling from North Carolina, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Eric. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Doing well, Eric. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| I have a few things I want to say. | ||
| One is that I remember in the 80s and 90s when under every American president, both Republican and Democrat, Hispanics were being brought across the borders for cheap labor. | ||
| I think it's disingenuous for the Republicans to try to blame the mass numbers of Hispanics on the last president and on a Democrat president. | ||
| And I firmly reject the way that they're being dealt with today because there's a basic human guideline of treating people the way you want to be treated. | ||
| And I think Americans who are for Sending folks back across the border need to understand there's a way to do it, and the way it's being done is not right. | ||
| I reject the president's lies, and I don't even know where ICE come from, but I know the people who are the enforcement of ICE is questionable as far as their integrity and how they even got in positions seeing the way they're treating Americans as well as other people. | ||
| That was Eric in North Carolina. | ||
| And John's our last call for this portion of the program in Virginia, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I just want to say, first of all, the lady from Michigan will say, I don't understand because you are not in control of your mind. | ||
| You have to watch and listen to your brain. | ||
| Usually, we all are human beings. | ||
| When we wake up in the morning, we have to look at the mirror and look ourselves. | ||
| We're getting information that has nothing to do with us. | ||
| We have to control our mind so we can run this country. | ||
| People always getting the bad information for all of us, including me. | ||
| When we call the square deal, we're always ready to attack the other party. | ||
| We cannot run countries like that. | ||
| I want to answer the gentleman who budgeted everything. | ||
| You want to cut the budget. | ||
| You haven't mentioned one time that defense. | ||
| Our money goes to defense monsters. | ||
| America, when they talk about cutting, they cut the 1% that poor people get, whether the social security, Medicaid, that's what they fight for. | ||
| And remember, sir, the person who just called, billionaires, they don't pay enough taxes. | ||
| You can't expect service when you don't want to pay anything. | ||
| That's not how this country can run. | ||
| People make more money, yet we believe I don't want to pay anything this country. | ||
| I just want to take it. | ||
| But again, I want to say to every one of us, we have to respect each other. | ||
| That's all I have to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was John in Virginia. | ||
| Our last call in this first hour of Washington Journal. | ||
| Still ahead on the program, American Institute for Boys and Men's Richard Reeves joins us to discuss the concerns over the current state of young men and boys in the United States. | ||
| But next, after the break, we'll talk with journalist and author Bhatia Angar Sargon about Trump administration foreign and economic policies. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Past president. | |
| Why? | ||
| Why are you doing this? | ||
| This is outrageous. | ||
| This is a kangaroo court. | ||
| Fridays, C-SPAN presents a rare moment of unity. | ||
| Ceasefire, where the shouting stops and the conversation begins. | ||
| Politico Playbook chief correspondent and White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns is host of Ceasefire, bringing two leaders from opposite sides of the aisle into a dialogue. | ||
| Ceasefire on the network that doesn't take sides. | ||
| Fridays at 7 and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN. | ||
| Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold new original series. | ||
| Sunday, with our guest, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. | ||
| Only the fifth woman to serve on the high court and author of the book, Listening to the Law. | ||
| She joins our host, renowned author and civic leader, David Rubenstein. | ||
| And what do you hope most people will take away from your book? | ||
| I think what I want them to take away from the book is that they should be proud of the court. | ||
| And I want them to be able, I want them to understand the way the court grapples with the legal questions that matter to the country. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch America's Book Club with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN. | |
| America marks 250 years, and C-SPAN is there to commemorate every moment. | ||
| From the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the voices shaping our nation's future, we bring you unprecedented all-platform coverage, exploring the stories, sights, and spirit that make up America. | ||
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| America 250. | ||
| Over a year of historic moments. | ||
| Only on the C-SPAN networks. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Joining us now to discuss Trump administration foreign and economic policies is Batia Angar Sargon. | ||
| She is an author and journalist. | ||
| Batia, thank you so much for being back on the program with us. | ||
| Thank you so much for having me. | ||
| It's such an honor to be here with you and your viewers. | ||
| We'll start with an op-ed, an opinion piece you had in the New York Post recently, the headline, How Trump Worked a Middle East Miracle with His Two-Sided American First Doctrine. | ||
| Explain what you mean. | ||
| You talk about President Trump's recent actions in brokering this peace deal between Hamas and Israel, and you say it's thanks to his tariff policy that he put in place. | ||
| Explain what you mean. | ||
| So prior to President Trump, our foreign policy, honestly, both from Republicans and from Democrats, had this view that we should be sort of exporting our democracy to countries that didn't have it on the view that we had shared values with them. | ||
| Trump really does not believe in that. | ||
| He doesn't believe in shared values. | ||
| He believes in sharing value. | ||
| He doesn't believe in exporting democracy. | ||
| He believes in exporting exports. | ||
| And he doesn't believe in this sort of mass fleecing of the American working class that was represented by this foreign policy that involved sending trillions of dollars and the lives of our soldiers in order to build up these fictional democracies in other countries. | ||
| What Trump wants is shared interests. | ||
| So there's three steps to the president's dealmaking, as far as I can tell. | ||
| The first is you ignore the experts. | ||
| And the second is you align the interests of the competing sides. | ||
| And the third step is you play the long game, you take the win when you can, and don't be afraid to pivot. | ||
| And where the tariffs and the economic policy come into that is in step two. | ||
| So let's take this Middle East deal, this ceasefire that he pulled off. | ||
| Truly miraculous. | ||
| He stopped the bombing campaign in Gaza and got those 20 live hostages home. | ||
| First, he ignored the experts who said the only thing the Arabs will be satisfied with is the destruction of Israel. | ||
| Nonsense, the president said. | ||
| Everybody wants things. | ||
| He went on this big Middle East tour in the beginning of the administration to Qatar and Saudi Arabia and the UAE. | ||
| And what he did when he was there was he attracted trillions of dollars in investment from those moderate Muslim countries back into the United States, intertwining our economy with theirs. | ||
| And he was then able to say to them, look, our interests are aligned. | ||
| So, despite the fact that I, President Trump, am very pro-Israel and proud of that, I am not going to betray you because I'm on your side as well. | ||
| Look, our economies are intertwined. | ||
| And that was how he got both sides to align their interests, to see their interests as one with the United States. | ||
| And the tariffs were crucial because that investment from these Muslim countries came in the form of investment in our industrial base in AI, in the aerospace. | ||
| And that investment in American manufacturing is 100% the result of the tariff regime to where the president is saying, I'm going to make it costly to offshore manufacturing and I'm going to make it beneficial to reshore manufacturing. | ||
| So you see how the economic policy and the foreign policy are two sides of the same coin. | ||
| I want to read a quote from that opinion piece. | ||
| It says, While American foreign policy throughout the post-war era has relied on endless extensions of our military might and our national wealth, Trump's stems from a relationship he built to profit the American people, specifically our working class. | ||
| The working class is a subject that you have written about. | ||
| We can see the book there behind you. | ||
| It's titled The Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women. | ||
| Remind us what it means to be working class. | ||
| So in the book, the way I define working class is a person whose job does not rely on skills that they would have acquired through a college education, but who's been locked out of the top 20%. | ||
| So people who work full-time with their hands or in any job where you're not required to have that college degree, and yet you're still sort of cut out of having that middle-class standard of living, that stability that we all look for when we're pursuing the American dream. | ||
| And continue to explain how President Trump's foreign policies impact those working class Americans you just described. | ||
| So first of all, one of the key promises he made during both campaigns, but was extremely important in the second campaign, was no more foreign wars, no more foreign entanglements. | ||
| We're not going to be sending American troops to fight other people's wars. | ||
| And he's really kept to that, even in places where we did get involved in something like Iran's nuclear capabilities, very important to President Trump to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. | ||
| He did it in a way that ensured that our soldiers were protected. | ||
| We're not sending billions and trillions of dollars to build up nations across the globe. | ||
| We're going to put American interests first and foremost. | ||
| So that was the first thing, and that is extremely important to working class Americans and to young Americans who are really sick of foreign aid. | ||
| They feel, I can't afford to buy a home. | ||
| Why are we sending billions of dollars across the globe? | ||
| It's a very interesting argument, a very important one for anybody who wants to be competitive politically to pay attention to. | ||
| So that's on the foreign policy front. | ||
| It's more about what we're not doing than what we are doing. | ||
| Although, of course, when it comes to terrorist threats to the United States, the president is very hawkish. | ||
| On the economic front, there are two main things that he's done. | ||
| The first is controlling the border and the mass deportations, controlling the supply of labor, the amount of people who are competing for jobs in working class industries. | ||
| If you get that number down by taking illegal workers out of the workforce, American workers, American citizens, can then ask for more money because, of course, it's supply and demand. | ||
| The fewer workers there are, the more money they can ask for. | ||
| So, this is already starting to impact the wages of working class Americans, which have started to go up. | ||
| But the tariff regime is equally important. | ||
| Before we had this tariff regime, you know, it was really unfair. | ||
| Foreign countries had tariffs on us, but we had no tariffs on them. | ||
| And so, what happened was you saw this mass offshoring of manufacturing into other countries to build up their middle class because manufacturing jobs are really good jobs. | ||
| And these corporations would just say, well, if we have to pay an American, you know, $100,000 a year and benefits, why don't we just go to China where we can employ at best Chinese workers for $3 an hour, but at worst, you know, Uyghur slaves for $0 an hour. | ||
| We had this mass offshoring of these great jobs, 5 million good manufacturing jobs, which historically had given American workers a middle-class standard of living. | ||
| And what the president did with the tariffs was he said, okay, you want to manufacture elsewhere? | ||
| That's your right. | ||
| You know, this is capitalism, but it's going to cost you. | ||
| He put a tariff on those companies. | ||
| It's a tax on corporations, not on consumers, because it's corporations who've been paying it if they want to manufacture elsewhere. | ||
| So we're seeing a lot of manufacturing coming back. | ||
| We've brought in $150 billion into this country in tariff revenue, and the vast majority of that has been paid by corporations and by foreign governments like China, because of course there's no free market in China. | ||
| Batia Angar Sargon is our guest for our discussion on the Trump administration's foreign and economic policies. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Bhatia, I want to go back to what you were saying about tariffs. | ||
| You were saying that it's corporations who have been the ones taking a hit. | ||
| Economists will argue that tariffs tend to hit low-income families the hardest. | ||
| And the budget lab at Yale, analysis from them last month, found that President Trump's tariffs will likely increase the number of Americans living in poverty by 875,000 in 2026. | ||
| Your response to that. | ||
| It's funny how it's always in the future tense. | ||
| So on April 2nd, on Liberation Day, when he imposed the tariffs, all of the economists, all of them said, these are going to get paid by the American consumer $4,000 per family by the end of the year. | ||
| Okay, well, it's been eight months. | ||
| You know, that didn't happen. | ||
| And so they're always projecting the cost that's going to be paid by the American consumer. | ||
| They're pushing it down the line because they keep predicting it's going to happen and it keeps not happening. | ||
| There is no inflation from the tariffs. | ||
| None of that materialized. | ||
| We do know that most of it has been paid by corporations. | ||
| And every time Walmart threatens to raise prices, President Trump picks up the phone and they don't raise the prices. | ||
| So the predictions of economists, they keep getting things wrong. | ||
| And I know that it's very hard. | ||
| It sounds very arrogant of me. | ||
| I mean, I'm not an economist, right? | ||
| But I pay very close attention to what they say. | ||
| And you just keep looking at things and it doesn't show up. | ||
| It doesn't materialize. | ||
| Of course, it's possible I'm wrong. | ||
| And if next year there are 800,000 more families living in poverty, I will, of course, admit that I was wrong. | ||
| And I will turn on the tariff regime. | ||
| And I will say we made a mistake. | ||
| But for now, we're seeing huge benefits. | ||
| We're seeing working class wages rising, just as we're seeing that from meatpacking plants where there are raids and they deport illegal workers. | ||
| And the next day, that waiting room is full of Americans applying for those jobs. | ||
| I mean, this is a re-Americanization of the workforce in this country. | ||
| And that is something that everybody should applaud, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican. | ||
| I'm not sure if you would agree or not. | ||
| I know you spoke with a lot of people for your book, but when it comes to a group that may be considered working class, that's farmers. | ||
| And this is a headline from Politico: Trump promised farmers a bailout. | ||
| Time is running out. | ||
| It says that President Trump promised a bailout for farmers reeling from the effects of his tariffs and the high cost for fertilizer and other equipment. | ||
| It looks like they could possibly use some of the tariff revenue to send funds to those farmers who are impacted by that. | ||
| Is that the right thing to do with those funds? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Yeah, I would totally support that. | ||
| Our farmers are extremely important. | ||
| And also, you know, what we're asking of farmers is a lot because some massive farms, not the family farms, which rely on citizen American labor, but some of the larger farms do rely on illegal labor. | ||
| And what we're saying to them is: look, you have to invest in the American workforce. | ||
| So I totally support that. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| We have callers waiting to talk with you. | ||
| We'll start with Catherine, who's calling from Rhode Island on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Catherine. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you? | |
| We're doing well, Catherine. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just want to want you to explain how your guests to explain how the tariffs are not going to affect the consumer. | |
| I'm in the manufacturing industry. | ||
| I already see prices from the corporations being put, like raising their prices to the retailers, which the retailers are going to raise their prices. | ||
| They already are raising their prices. | ||
| And as President Trump can pick up the phone and say, oh, no, no, don't do that, it will happen because they're not going to eat those costs for very long. | ||
| Thank you so much for the question, Catherine. | ||
| So people have been saying that from the beginning. | ||
| And obviously, one understands why somebody would say that. | ||
| Well, why would these corporations just eat it, right? | ||
| The thing to remember is that there was a phenomenon called greedflation during the pandemic, to where in the beginning of the pandemic, the supply chains broke down. | ||
| And corporations and companies couldn't get access to their goods. | ||
| So the cost of those goods went up by 10, 15%. | ||
| And then the supply chains mended. | ||
| And guess what? | ||
| A lot of those corporations did not bring the prices down. | ||
| They didn't then say, oh, this additional cost we had incurred due to a broken supply chain is now gone. | ||
| Therefore, we'll bring prices back down. | ||
| So prices were already artificially high and they knew that. | ||
| And what is so funny to me is that the Democrats used to be the ones railing against greedflation and saying, this is terrible. | ||
| We should put a tax on corporations and companies to bring down the price because it is so unfair what they're doing to the American consumer. | ||
| And that's exactly what Donald Trump did. | ||
| And I think that's why they are willing to eat 10 to 15 percent of those tariffs. | ||
| When it gets above 20 percent, that's when they will start putting it onto consumers, I believe. | ||
| But for now, the vast majority of the tariffs are under 20 percent, and they are still being eaten by those corporations. | ||
| Inflation is, I think, below 1% from where it was last year. | ||
| The price of food has fluctuated, but the general trend is downwards. | ||
| The price of energy is down. | ||
| Gas and electricity and all of the things that make other products expensive is down by about 11% year over year. | ||
| And I think that is where these corporations have a little wiggle room to eat these tariffs. | ||
| So that's what we're seeing. | ||
| Now, again, Catherine, you could be right. | ||
| It could be that in six months, I will be proven totally wrong. | ||
| The cost of everything will be up by 20%. | ||
| The corporations will give up on paying the tariffs. | ||
| But I think for now, they're playing ball because we all understand that the situation we had in which we were reliant on China for everything, including things that have deep, deep national security interests at stake, was totally unsustainable. | ||
| I do think we're seeing a new noblesse oblige, if you will, coming out of the elites around what they owe their working class neighbors. | ||
| But again, I could be wrong, and I promise you I will admit it if I was. | ||
| Let's hear from Ray, who's calling from New Hampshire on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Ray. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I really like to say I really enjoyed your book, Second Class. | ||
| One of the things you mentioned in there, and I've heard you talk about this before, was how President Obama cut back on trade schools. | ||
| I'd just like to say I know this young man who just graduated high school and he's going to school to become a welder. | ||
| And I was telling him just the other day, I saw a report where the U.S. Navy is desperate to find enough welders because of the big shipbuilding boom that's going on for subs and service ships and things like that. | ||
| And they were saying I think it was around 100,000 plus welders that just the Navy is going to need for the shipyards, repair facilities, things like that. | ||
| And here in New England, we have electric boat down in Grant, Connecticut. | ||
| We have BAFT Ironworks up in Maine. | ||
| They build destroyers. | ||
| And then Portsmouth, New Hampshire is the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which repairs subs. | ||
| So if you could, you know, again, how Gen Z is looking at more trade school than college, and how, what exactly did President Obama do to cut back on the trade schools? | ||
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| Thank you so much for that. | ||
| Yeah, he defunded vocational training in high school. | ||
| And the idea was, well, everyone will just go to college. | ||
| And what that ended up doing is sending the message to a generation of young men that if you are not built to sit for long periods of time quietly taking notes and listening to authority, which many young men are not, then you're nothing. | ||
| Because when we had vocational training in high schools, it signaled to them: look, everybody has their role to play and their God-given talents. | ||
| And you can make it into the American dream based on what makes you unique. | ||
| And that was defunded, and that avenue was taken away. | ||
| And instead, we had this view that if you don't, if you're not academic in nature and you're not good at algebra and Shakespeare, then you're nothing. | ||
| And you don't deserve the American dream. | ||
| It was a horrible, horrible thing to do. | ||
| I personally believe a lot of the deaths of despair, drug epidemic, and overdoses, a lot of that is tied to this crisis in self-esteem around working class people, working class life, just the absolute, you know, murdering the romance of working class life and the dignity that young men in particular get from being providers and working with their hands for a living. | ||
| And you're so right. | ||
| We are so back on that front. | ||
| That is something that Trump telegraphs a lot in the way that he talks about work. | ||
| And it's so significant to young men to where they do feel, I think, that there is that dignity coming back to that working class life. | ||
| And I would love to see the administration invest in vocational training in high schools and vocational training secondary school. | ||
| They say they're going to do that. | ||
| And I really hope that they do because it's just so important. | ||
| And it's not just important economically, which it is, it's important spiritually and socially. | ||
| And in terms of, you know, there's a marriage crisis where young people aren't getting married and children are being born out of wedlock, which is a huge predictor for downward mobility for children. | ||
| Giving young men that feeling that they can be a provider, that's really, really important for our nation as a whole. | ||
| Batia, I want to share this headline. | ||
| I know you can't see my screen, but it says, it's too late to extend ACA subsidies without major disruptions. | ||
| Some state and lawmakers, some states and lawmakers say we are now 20 days into a government shutdown. | ||
| At the heart of the matter are those ACA subsidies that help low and middle income Americans afford health care. | ||
| If they aren't available, how is that going to affect working Americans? | ||
| It's going to be terrible if they're not available. | ||
| I do think the shutdown is going to end soon, and I do think they will extend those subsidies. | ||
| But there's a much bigger problem looming, which is that, you know, millions of Americans have terrible health care. | ||
| And I'm not even talking about the ones who have, you know, who don't, the health care that a lot of Americans have through their work is just terrible health care. | ||
| And that's just unacceptable. | ||
| And if the GOP really wants to be the party of the working class, they got the majority of working class voters in 2024. | ||
| If they want to keep them, they have to have a plan for that. | ||
| And right now they really don't. | ||
| If they don't like Obamacare, they need something better. | ||
| Because you can't just say to millions of Americans, like, oh, we're just going to get rid of the access you have, whether it's good or not. | ||
| And by the way, I'm not talking about poor people because the poorest Americans have access to Medicaid, which is the Cadillac of health insurances. | ||
| It's the working class and the middle class who gets squeezed with, you know, $5,000 deductibles. | ||
| You know what that is to a person who makes $6,000 a year? | ||
| It's disgusting. | ||
| I mean, I don't know why a company that has a billion dollars in profit and revenue should be allowed to offer its workers health care that has a $5,000 deductible. | ||
| It's just so wrong. | ||
| It's godless. | ||
| It's bad politics. | ||
| So I really think that if the Republicans want to remain competitive, there's only one issue that the Democrats still have on them, and it's healthcare. | ||
| Chris is calling from Manhattan, Kansas, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Chris. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| So my question was, how much does you make as far as like salary or whatever? | ||
| And what's your health insurance? | ||
| What do you have right now? | ||
| Me personally? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, you personally. | |
| I just got a new job, and so I'm still working it out. | ||
| Is the honest truth? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What was that? | |
| What is that salary? | ||
| What do you make on average? | ||
| I don't know that I'm comfortable sharing that, but I appreciate the question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You are. | |
| Yeah, okay. | ||
| What about where did you grow up? | ||
| Where did you grow up? | ||
| Are you more comfortable with sharing that as well? | ||
| Chris, what are you trying to get Badia to answer? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What I'm trying to say is, I grew up in the Midwest. | |
| I've been with working class Americans my entire life. | ||
| I've held riches. | ||
| I've been in dirt. | ||
| I've been in mud. | ||
| Everything that you can imagine what a working class America would be. | ||
| Now, you say that, you know, as far as trade schools go and stuff like that, they cut that out. | ||
| Well, guess what? | ||
| They cut that out because they are now certifying it in different community colleges and different programs within the college community. | ||
| Well, you know, in that kind of turn right there, you have the ability for those people to not only learn in general, but also get those trade skills as well. | ||
| And listen, all right. | ||
| Some health, yeah, our health care system's terrible. | ||
| At least having some health care right now is better than no health care at all. | ||
| And don't even get me started on tariffs because our soybean, our soybean farmers are doing pretty bad right now. | ||
| And all Trump is right now is just talking, no belling them out. | ||
| And don't even get me started on whether he's. | ||
| Do you think Trump's? | ||
| Chris, we're going to give Batia a chance to respond to your comments. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, yeah. | |
| Oh, I totally agree about the health care, as I just said. | ||
| Some is better than none for sure, but we should have much better health care for all Americans. | ||
| Honestly, I think that the Republicans should embrace a Medicare for all platform. | ||
| I think that will be great. | ||
| And on the soybeans, again, I agree. | ||
| I think that the farmer should be getting subsidies until this all works out. | ||
| But the situation that we had before in which we were reliant on China for things like the very ships we would need if we were going to have to fight them in a war and the very pharmaceuticals we would need to fight a pandemic that came from them, like that was unsustainable. | ||
| Something had to change. | ||
| So if you thought that the situation we were in prior to Trump was good, you're going to be very upset that he's fixing it. | ||
| I think it was very damaged. | ||
| And so I'm very happy that he's fixing it. | ||
| Let's hear from Susan, who's calling from North Carolina on the line for independence. | ||
| Hi, Susan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning to both of you. | |
| And thank you for the information that you've been given. | ||
| It's been an interesting morning to listen to this. | ||
| I just wanted to share something from Grassroots America. | ||
| After the tariffs were released, I got a letter from a company that we buy stuff for our church from saying that there would be a 12% increase across the board on the products we buy because of the tariffs. | ||
| And also, I went to get candles. | ||
| I had priced them for our Christmas program. | ||
| At our church, it would be $26 for a box of 24. | ||
| When I went to order them, they had gone up to $52. | ||
| So I don't know here who is experiencing this in Upper America, but in Grassroots America, we're really seeing a taking a hit. | ||
| And that's all I have to say. | ||
| But thank you so much. | ||
| Thank you for the call. | ||
| I know that small businesses have been hit by the tariffs, and some of them have not been able to absorb the costs as much as sort of bigger corporations. | ||
| I feel sorry for them, and I feel sorry for the consumers who rely on those small businesses. | ||
| Unfortunately, a small business that built its business model on importing all of the components of its product from China, that business model is not sustainable in my view and came at the expense of their working class neighbors. | ||
| And now we're trying something else. | ||
| So every model is going to have sacrifices. | ||
| When we offshored manufacturing to China and Mexico, we destroyed working class communities, but we made it much easier to start a small business because you could get access to these cheap materials. | ||
| So there are winners and losers in every situation. | ||
| And it's my view that right now it is the turn of the American working class to be the winner here. | ||
| And in general, we have seen, by and large, the vast majority of the tariffs have been eaten by American corporations and then by China as well. | ||
| Bhatia, I want to go back to something you mentioned a few minutes ago, and that was pharmaceuticals. | ||
| It was earlier this month that President Trump announced a deal with Pfizer. | ||
| It's also something that you wrote an opinion piece about in Fox, how Trump uses same strategy to curb big pharma, secure Middle East peace. | ||
| What do we know about this deal and how is it going to benefit working Americans? | ||
| Yeah, this is again one of those issues that Democrats talked about for so long, bringing down the cost of pharmaceuticals. | ||
| We had this ridiculous situation where Americans were paying four times as much for the same pharmaceuticals that we produced as favored nations, as European, rich European countries. | ||
| It was so, so unfair and unjust. | ||
| And basically, the president again did the three-step dealmaking. | ||
| He started with number one, ignore the experts who all told him, look, healthcare, that's the Democrats' bag. | ||
| That's not our thing. | ||
| He was like, no, this is my thing. | ||
| Why shouldn't this be my thing? | ||
| This matters to working class people. | ||
| It matters to my voters. | ||
| I'm going to bring down the cost of drugs. | ||
| Step two, align the interests. | ||
| So generally, when you have, you know, a company that's selling something and a consumer that's buying it, their interests are at odds. | ||
| What he did with the tariffs was he said, okay, Pfizer, you can keep doing this. | ||
| You can keep charging Americans more money and manufacturing your drugs in China, but it's going to cost you. | ||
| He changed the rules of the marketplace to where it aligned the interests of the consumer and the producer, to where now suddenly Pfizer had a financial interest to reshore that manufacturing to the United States. | ||
| And then also to get on the president's good side, they offered to give the United States consumer, our patients, the same price as those favored nations, as those rich European and Canadian nations that were paying so much less for the same goods. | ||
| Just completely, completely brilliant dealmaking there. | ||
| It's very hard to imagine somebody else being able to pull this off, like having the cojonists to do it. | ||
| And I think it's very similar how he handled Pfizer as how he handled the Middle East. | ||
| CT is calling from San Diego on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, CT. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| God bless you all. | ||
| C Than, it's fantastic. | ||
| If I could join or support you in membership drive, I would pay you before I buy food. | ||
| My question is, my statement is this, and I have a question. | ||
| Well, please, I have a difficulty pronouncing your name, I'm sorry, but please, I appreciate your honest, impartial statements that you're making at this time. | ||
| It is a breath of fresh air against all those who have persuasive abilities to deceive the people. | ||
| But please address the issue of the 20 million people that have come to America, illegal, undocumented, however you want to title them, and the burden that has been placed on our economic structure by having to be enforced by the Democrats to take care of these people on a medical basis. | ||
| Thank you all. | ||
| Thank you very much, and God bless you. | ||
| God bless you too. | ||
| Thank you so much for the question. | ||
| Yeah, I mean, every person who's here illegally is either working or not working. | ||
| If they're working, then they are working illegally in an industry that is because they are available to work for less than minimum wage and less than an American would be able to ask for, they're bringing down the wages in that industry. | ||
| And if they're not working, they're being subsidized by the American taxpayer. | ||
| Now, the Democrats will say it's illegal for an illegal migrant to have access to Medicaid, and that they say that this is a lie from the Republicans. | ||
| But that's not actually true. | ||
| There are states like California that do use federal funds in order to give access to illegal migrants health care in hospitals. | ||
| And it's not just your sort of basic, obviously, I think most of us wouldn't want a person to be turned away from a hospital, whether they're legal or illegal. | ||
| But in California, they really upped the ante and started giving them that sort of Cadillac Medicaid to where they get things that American citizens don't have access to, including dental care and vision. | ||
| And you can hear this straight from Dr. Oz, who's the head of Medicare and Medicaid. | ||
| The way that Democratic states that are sanctuary states have offered this taxpayer-subsidized health care, the best possible health care in America to people who are not citizens, while their own citizens can't get work and can't get that great health care. | ||
| And I find that to be outrageous. | ||
| I think a lot of people do. | ||
| A lot of Republicans, a lot of Independents. | ||
| And I do think that Democrats should find that outrageous as well. | ||
| Not the idea that illegals are getting health care, but the idea that people who are citizens are subsidizing a higher standard of health care for people who are not Americans while they themselves don't get dental and don't get vision and are paying these enormous, enormous premiums in order to get a lower standard of care. | ||
| There is something about that that is truly to me very, very unfair. | ||
| Josie is calling from New York on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Josie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning to you. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I'm calling because I disagree with what Batia, I think that's how you pronounce the name said about Walmart prices. | ||
| They are insane. | ||
| Coffee has gone up to $15 to $16 a can. | ||
| All the fruits and vegetables we are getting are rotted. | ||
| I'm a senior citizen, okay? | ||
| Everything has gone up from bread to shampoo. | ||
| Electricity has gone up. | ||
| Every single thing has gone up. | ||
| And I'm not talking by one or two dollars. | ||
| I'm talking by five, six, seven, eight, nine dollars. | ||
| So, how she says that these things that they're doing is not affecting the poor, it most certainly is. | ||
| It most certainly is. | ||
| And I've worked my whole life. | ||
| Middle class, there was no such thing as middle class no more. | ||
| A being a hamburger is like $22. | ||
| It's insane. | ||
| So I disagree with her. | ||
| I just wish things would get back to normal. | ||
| I don't know what that is at this point, but I'm worried because I don't know how I am so glad that my children are grown, but I don't know how people with children are surviving. | ||
| I can't even imagine to have to raise three children right now on these insanity prices. | ||
| And I want to say thank you. | ||
| I enjoy C-SPAN. | ||
| I'm not very political, but something's got to be done because I just think the rich are getting richer. | ||
| There is no middle class. | ||
| And the poor, I don't know what they're doing with the medical coverage and everything, but it's absolutely horrible. | ||
| Josie, we'll let Batia respond. | ||
| Thank you so much for the call, Josie. | ||
| That's terrible what you're saying about the situation with the fruits and vegetables being rotten and the prices being up. | ||
| Coffee, I do know, is up. | ||
| I think that that's been established because we don't grow much of it here. | ||
| We import most of it. | ||
| We do produce 75% of the food that we consume is made in the United States. | ||
| Walmart frequently talks about how much of their products are made in the USA, and so they really have no excuse to be raising prices due to tariffs in a big way across the board. | ||
| But I completely agree with you that the middle class has disappeared. | ||
| It's been squeezed completely. | ||
| We do know that across the board, the price of food is not significantly up by more than 1%. | ||
| So the inflation that started, you know, three years ago, four years ago, with a big influx of cash into the system is still there, and we should be doing much more to bring it down. | ||
| And I think that the administration is looking for ways to do that. | ||
| And I hope that they succeed soon. | ||
| But I totally agree with you. | ||
| Yeah, inflation has proven very sticky. | ||
| And I really hope those prices come down soon. | ||
| And Batia, and to our caller, this was a headline from earlier this month in the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| It says, hell hath no fury like a coffee drinker in 2025. | ||
| It says that roasted coffee prices at the grocery store are up 22% in the past year, more than any other item tracked by the government. | ||
| And it also notes that the price increases are due to bad weather in the world's coffee-growing regions and the Trump administration tariffs. | ||
| So it sounds like what you were saying is correct, Batia. | ||
| We don't grow a lot of it here, and it's bad weather partially to blame. | ||
| Yeah, I mean, as somebody who drinks four cups of coffee a day, I'm definitely feeling it. | ||
| Agreed. | ||
| Let's hear from Zachary. | ||
| He's calling from Tampa Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Zachary. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, everyone. | |
| Thank you, Steve Span. | ||
| And Batia, thank you, too. | ||
| Although I don't agree with you, I certainly respect you. | ||
| So let me say this: I'm in the Marine, and the fact, one, that they have Marines on the street pointing guns at our citizens disgusts me. | ||
| I have to be honest with you. | ||
| Also, I do agree with Charlie Kirk when he talks about his definition of DEI, when he said DEI didn't earn it. | ||
| I think the administration is full of that. | ||
| So I see that all the time. | ||
| Incompetency. | ||
| You talk about the budget. | ||
| Let's talk about the budget. | ||
| All these trade agreements that he's made, every one of them has something for the oil and gas companies. | ||
| Every one of them. | ||
| Every one of them has that you have to invest in this country. | ||
| Well, the investments go through Lutnick and his billionaire group. | ||
| All the agricultural products that they have to buy in these trade agreements go through Besson, his billionaire group. | ||
| The GDP growth, see in the last 10 months for the billionaire class of Donald Trump's friends and Donald Trump individually and his family has exceeded the country's GDP growth. | ||
| So look at it. | ||
| The prices. | ||
| You say the prices aren't high. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| I'm an IT director. | ||
| I buy equipment. | ||
| I buy food for my staff. | ||
| It's considerably more expensive now than ever in the last eight, 10 months. | ||
| And also, you mentioned about vocational schools because I train and I hire from vocational schools and vocational programs. | ||
| The vocational training trade changes were done under Ronald Reagan in 1980, 1981. | ||
| What Obama did is he just shifted those to junior and community colleges. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| But the vocational funds were pulled by Ronald Reagan. | ||
| Last thing, this whole dishonesty, the dissemination of systematic information, often biased, misleading, or emotional, to influence public opinion and further a specific political, commercial, or military agenda, which you're doing this morning, ma'am, is propaganda. | ||
| This is not disinformation or misinformation, I'm sorry, but it's propaganda. | ||
| And please, America, wake up. | ||
| Thank you guys. | ||
| Thank you, Zachary, for your service. | ||
| And thank you for calling in. | ||
| And I really appreciate hearing where you're coming from. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Kent is calling from Greenville, Ohio, on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Kent. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Yeah, my perspective on the insurance is you've got a flood of illegal aliens coming into the country and they're overwhelming the system. | ||
| When they don't pay, your insurance goes up. | ||
| They're going to get the money. | ||
| Same thing goes with the looting and the rioting. | ||
| Every time a car is burned, an insurance company has to come in and pay these people back. | ||
| Illegal immigration is the biggest thing, and then education would be the second. | ||
| There's too much estrogen in the school systems. | ||
| We need male teachers like Drew, former drill sergeants, military people, and they need to put boxing rings in the gyms and let these kids fight. | ||
| I'm telling you, when I was a kid in the 80s, we always got in street fights and stuff like that. | ||
| The kids blew their steam off, and then they were friends again at the end of the day. | ||
| Now they're bringing guns into these schools. | ||
| And where are the high school counselors at with all these shootings? | ||
| Someone's got to hold them accountable. | ||
| What are they doing? | ||
| I think I spent 12 minutes with my high school counselor my junior year. | ||
| You know, the whole thing's messed up, and a lot of it hinges on illegal immigration and feminization. | ||
| I'm speechless. | ||
| What a great call. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We'll go to Shirley, who's calling from Pasadena, Texas, Line for Republicans. | ||
| Hi, Shirley. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you? | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I wanted to let your person know that you have on there right now that I agree with pretty much everything she's saying. | ||
| I think that as far as the government shutdown goes right now, I think that if the Democrats would have not shut down the government, that they would have hashed all this insurance business out, and we wouldn't be dealing with this right now. | ||
| I agree. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you so much for the call. | |
| Batia Ungar Sargon is host of Batia on News Nation. | ||
| She is also author of Second Class, How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women. | ||
| Batia, thank you so much for your time this morning. | ||
| What an honor to be here with you and all of your callers. | ||
| Thank you so much for having me and God bless. | ||
| Later this morning on Washington Journal, American Institute for Boys and Men, Richard Reeves joins us to discuss concerns over the current state of young men and boys in the United States. | ||
| But next, after the break, more of your calls. | ||
| You can start calling in now. | ||
| Here are the lines. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold new original series. | |
| Sunday with our guest, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. | ||
| Only the fifth woman to serve on the high court and author of the book, Listening to the Law. | ||
| She joins our host, renowned author and civic leader, David Rubenstein. | ||
| And what do you hope most people will take away from your book? | ||
| I think what I want them to take away from the book is that they should be proud of the court. | ||
| And I want them to be able, I want them to understand the way the court grapples with the legal questions that matter to the country. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch America's Book Club with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN. | |
| The names are almost all known nationally. | ||
| Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani, David Denkins, Al Sharpton, Larry Cramer, and Donald Trump. | ||
| These are people who were first in the news in the 1980s. | ||
| Their early public lives are now featured in Jonathan Mahler's book, The Gods of New York. | ||
| The book is divided into four large chapters, titled 1986, 87, 1988, 1989. | ||
| Mr. Mahler, a feature writer for the New York Times magazine, closes his book with this last paragraph. | ||
| The existential questions that New York faced as it entered 1986 were answered. | ||
| The great working-class city was gone, and so was any realistic expectation that it might ever be bound by a single culture. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Rich, poor, very rich, very poor. | |
| For better and for worse, everyone would now live in their own New York. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Author Jonathan Mahler, with his book, The Gods of New York, Egoists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City, 1986 to 1990, 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. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Welcome back. | ||
| We are in open form for the next 30 minutes or so. | ||
| We'll start with Linda, who's calling from Buffalo, New York, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Linda. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, and I hope you're doing well today on this rainy day here in Buffalo. | |
| I unfortunately missed speaking to Bacha beforehand, which I did have a few comments for the young lady. | ||
| But my comment today, and it's probably going to be good, bad, or in between, depending on what you're following. | ||
| But as far as the health care, do I believe that we as a country should have universal health care? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| And do I believe that the Democrats should hold their own right now? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| I don't see the Republican or the Trump administration showing the Democrats anything but a concept, quote unquote, from Trump himself, of a health care plan. | ||
| But yet they want the Democrats to come over and sign what they think is this big, beautiful garbage bill. | ||
| Hold your own, Democrats. | ||
| People say, oh, it's their fault. | ||
| It's their fault. | ||
| I believe a lot of the callers that call in are uneducated. | ||
| I believe they listen to the first thing that pops in their head from fake organizations or fake news. | ||
|
unidentified
|
People that look straight in the camera and tell lies, in particular, the last person that you, Bacha, that you had on. | |
| Again, and once they hear that, if you hear about psychology, the first thing that a person hears will be the first thing that they listen to and also remember. | ||
| So it's sad. | ||
| My family fought for this country, and it's sad to see what it is becoming. | ||
| That was Linda in New York. | ||
| Arthur is calling from Tucson, Arizona. | ||
| Line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Arthur. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| During Trump's first elected term as president, he was accused by Democrats, Adam Smith and others, as well as former Obama officials, as colluding with Putin. | ||
| But under oath, under Chairman Adam Schiff's Russian investigation, they told him that there was no evidence of cooperation from Trump or his administration with Russia. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I'm wondering how this has affected his ability to reopen the government by trying to negotiate with Republicans as well as Democrats and with how voters view his presidential administration. | |
| And I would like to find out, you know, maybe do we need to put every political individual, senators, and representative under oath, a penalty of law, in order for us to find out the truth of what's going on. | ||
| That was Arthur in Arizona. | ||
| Bruce is calling from Brant Lake, New York, Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Bruce. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm calling just to state that, you know, the last call, last woman you had on there, Batia or whatever, she is wrong about everything she says. | ||
| Can Satan laugh at the camera and say, I have no answer for that. | ||
| I have nothing to say. | ||
| But it's the American taxpayers that are paying the tariffs that the United States is imposing on all these other world countries. | ||
| And the health care issue is a big thing that needs to be, it needs to be corrected, the system, but it also needs to be extended for people, which I am one senior citizen and live alone. | ||
| And I just don't believe that they can just Republicans are not going to correct it. | ||
| They just want to do what they would eliminate the extended ACAs. | ||
| So they're just looking at it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That is Bruce in New York. | ||
| JR is calling from California on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, JR. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| My name is JR, and I'm calling everything Batia says about Trump, it's all lies. | ||
| This guy is never, he's a big racist. | ||
| He talks about vocational schools when he fired everybody, didn't pay the contractors that didn't work on his buildings. | ||
| And when it comes to taking care of the rich, that's all he's doing. | ||
| He's continuing just taking care of the rich. | ||
| And I'm a senior citizen on a fixed income, and it's getting worse here. | ||
| And that's all I got to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was JR in California. | ||
| Donald on the line from Elper of California, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Donald. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Hi, Donald. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Donald, are you there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm here. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Okay, go ahead. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm just calling to, I'm a disabled. | |
| I'm totally disabled. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Go ahead, Donald. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yep. | |
| California, I am totally disabled. | ||
| I'm here. | ||
| Donald, I think you're having problems hearing because you have your television up in the background. | ||
| Why don't you go ahead and turn that down and then give us a call back? | ||
| We'll go on to Matthew in Elkin, North Carolina, Line for Independence. | ||
| Hi, Matthew. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Yeah, I just I'm just calling in from the lady you had on last Talking about tariffs and stuff. | ||
| And all of that is completely garbage. | ||
| I mean, look what it's doing to the poor farmers in the Midwest. | ||
| I mean, they don't want to be bailed out. | ||
| They want a place to sell. | ||
| I mean, they want a market. | ||
| And that's just not right. | ||
| And I think it's just destroying just one part of America that this president is destroying. | ||
| And that's all I have to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Matthew in North Carolina. | ||
| Bob is calling from San Diego, California on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Bob. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I would like to talk kind of directly to the lady that you have on there. | ||
| I saw her on CNN a couple times, and she's pretty pro-Trump, which is cool. | ||
| I mean, you can be for whoever you're going to be for. | ||
| But I was a grocery clerk for 30 years in San Diego. | ||
| And I was on strike for like, I don't know, four or five months. | ||
| And our company was stealing our retirement at the same time that they didn't want to give us health insurance. | ||
| So I was working middle class. | ||
| But the most raises we got was 50 cents an hour over a two-year period. | ||
| And, you know, she talks about people stealing jobs. | ||
| There was nobody stealing our job. | ||
| Our corporation greed is what the problem is. | ||
| And we were saying, don't shop at Walmart because they're buying Chinese goods. | ||
| Shop union. | ||
| And, you know, we were saying shop union, and we believed it. | ||
| But until the companies are held accountable for the amount of greed that they get to take out of the system and not give to the middle class, we won't have a middle class. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And she can say all she says about, you know, that the middle class is still going and all that. | |
| It's not. | ||
| And it isn't because the corporations are greedy and they were going to, like, Albert Senson and Ralph were going to buy each other. | ||
| They were going to become one company. | ||
| And they probably would have been approved if Trump was president at the time. | ||
| Thank God he wasn't. | ||
| Biden was. | ||
| And their merger was not allowed. | ||
| Our retirement is still, to this day, in critical condition. | ||
| And they're threatening to take away 30% of my retirement that I've already made over the last 30 years just because they're saying they're not funding that retirement plan. | ||
| And that's actually happening right now. | ||
| And what am I looking forward to? | ||
| My Social Security is going to be cut in 2035, right? | ||
| Because they're not funding it. | ||
| The government needs to get their stuff together, and the companies need to abide by the contracts that they signed in the first place. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Bob in San Diego. | ||
| Julie calling from Rhode Island. | ||
| Line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Julie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I went, I live in a small town now Smith, Rhode Island, and I went up to the corner market where they were having a no-kings rally. | ||
| And every single person that was up there, it was like maybe 40 people. | ||
| Every single person that was up there couldn't say why they were protesting because they had no idea. | ||
| They were all on welfare. | ||
| They were all on Medicaid. | ||
| They were all on food stamps. | ||
| And those are the people that our President Trump wants to take off of aid, not so-called illegals or any of that. | ||
| The American people that have been sucking off the system for as long as they have. | ||
| And that is why I called in because I'm tired of them blaming President Trump for everything. | ||
| In my time, he's the best president I've ever had. | ||
| Obamacare messed my income up big time because I'm supposed to get a 3% raise every year. | ||
| But because I have to pay more in insurance, health insurance for Obamacare, I don't get a 3% raise. | ||
| I have to pay in more. | ||
| So, yeah, I'm a little peeved, but I'm not going to go ballistic or anything. | ||
| I just love my president. | ||
| I wish I'd stop lying to these people because it's not true what they're saying about him. | ||
| He's a good president. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Julie in Rhode Island. | ||
| Jose is calling from Florida on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Jose. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Go ahead, Jose. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're on. | |
| Yes. | ||
| I'd just like to say something a little about immigration. | ||
| I grew up as a migrant worker, and it seems to me like that should be a quick fix. | ||
| I mean, just pass a law where you can't hire an undocumented person. | ||
| And we shouldn't have any undocumented person working in construction, in golf courses, or any of that. | ||
| We should just let them work in the field because that's the work we don't want to do as Americans, you know. | ||
| And we don't need to spend this hellacious amount of money on ICE or any of this stuff they're doing. | ||
| We should use that to give medical to old people and children in this country. | ||
| I mean, I'm a vet, and that's basically what I thought I fought for, to be able to give our people the benefits that a lot of other countries don't give them. | ||
| That's why we were the envy of everybody. | ||
| But instead, we're just throwing money, good money, you know, after bad money. | ||
| If we have a problem somewhere, the whole idea is to talk about it. | ||
| But we don't seem to be talking about it. | ||
| I mean, I could see where the Republicans could say, okay, you know what? | ||
| You want to change the health care? | ||
| Let's extend it. | ||
| Let's just extend it, debate it, and decide what we need to do with it. | ||
| But instead, they're saying no. | ||
| It's my way or the highway. | ||
| That was Jose in Florida. | ||
| We are in open forum. | ||
| We'll get back to your calls in just a few moments. | ||
| But first, we want to check in with Brett Samuels, White House reporter for The Hill. | ||
| Good morning, Brett. | ||
| Thank you for being with us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks for having me. | ||
| President Trump has a busy week ahead of him, but we want to start first with the government shutdown. | ||
| We are now on day 20. | ||
| The Senate is in. | ||
| The House will continue to be out. | ||
| What are you hearing from White House officials about what their strategy is going forward? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, well, you know, as you mentioned, we're approaching, you know, another threshold here, another week of this government shutdown. | |
| And the White House to this point is not budging. | ||
| They are kind of projecting this messaging that they are prepared to kind of drag this out as long as needed. | ||
| We saw last week the Office of Management and Budget signal that they were prepared to pay federal law enforcement, they were prepared to pay the troops, and they were prepared to continue with these layoffs and these cuts to funding that they feel like puts the pressure on Democrats, will make Democrats come to the table. | ||
| So this seems like this is just going to continue to drag out. | ||
| The White House has indicated that there's no real indication that they're going to budge. | ||
| And in fact, the president is supposed to have lunch tomorrow on Tuesday with some congressional Republicans as sort of a thank you for them holding the line on this shutdown so far. | ||
| And last night, President Trump was coming back from Florida and on Air Force One. | ||
| He told reporters that the Gaza ceasefire is still in place after Israel launched retaliatory strikes on Gaza, saying that Hamas had targeted its forces. | ||
| What is the Trump administration doing to ensure the peace plan moves forward? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it's an interesting balancing act that they're trying to strike here because, you know, on the one hand, I think that the Trump administration wants to see partners in the Middle East kind of take a central role here in ensuring that this ceasefire holds. | |
| On the other hand, they obviously have a vested interest in making sure it holds. | ||
| So we're seeing Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the two individuals who kind of helped get this ceasefire across the finish line in the region. | ||
| They are in Israel today. | ||
| Vice President Vance signaled that he may also head to Israel and head to the Middle East for meetings later this week to try and kind of keep things on track, hopefully. | ||
| So, you know, I think the Trump administration is both kind of putting pressure on regional partners to do their part, but also, you know, we're seeing Trump administration officials and advisors in the area trying to meet with parties and make sure that this ceasefire stays on track. | ||
| Also, last night, President Trump said that he would raise tariffs on Colombia and stop all payments to the country. | ||
| Explain what happened and what we know about those new tariff rates. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, so there's this big falling out between the Trump administration and Colombia over the weekend. | |
| You know, this stemmed from these strikes that the Trump administration is carrying out on vessels in the Caribbean. | ||
| The Trump administration, of course, is saying that these are boats that are carrying drugs that are going to enter the United States if they're not struck. | ||
| But there are a lot of sort of legal questions and other questions about how they know who's on these boats, how they can be certain whether they have the authority to be carrying out these strikes in open waters. | ||
| And the Colombian president pushed back on this and pushed back on one strike in particular, said that this was not a Colombian drug boat, but this was a family that was on the boat that was targeted by the Trump administration with their latest strike. | ||
| Trump accused the Colombian president of being an illegal drug dealer. | ||
| So there's this big falling out, and the end result does seem to be that the Trump administration, as soon as today, is going to unveil new tariffs, heightened tariffs on Colombia. | ||
| We also heard, as you mentioned, that Trump said he was going to cut off aid to Colombia. | ||
| It's sort of unclear what that will look like because, of course, USAID was already gutted and that was an agency that provided a lot of aid to places like Colombia. | ||
| So we'll see what the final result looks like. | ||
| But at the minimum, this is a real deterioration in relations between the U.S. and Colombia. | ||
| And always a lot going on in the area of foreign affairs. | ||
| Today, Australian Prime Minister is expected to visit the White House. | ||
| What are he and President Trump expected to discuss? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, as is often the case with these foreign leader visits, trade is going to be, I think, at the top of the agenda between the U.S. and Australia. | |
| You know, there'll also be some talk of defense. | ||
| We saw during the Biden administration that AUKUS deal for the U.S. and Australia to purchase subs. | ||
| That'll likely come up. | ||
| And then one thing to monitor is in the aftermath of sort of the tensions between the U.S. and China over those critical mineral exports that China is clamping down on. | ||
| We'll see if Australia, which has its own critical minerals, whether that comes up in these talks, and more broadly, whether kind of countering China and Chinese influence comes up, given Australia's kind of important role as a U.S. ally in the Pacific and in that region. | ||
| And then President Trump himself later this week will be traveling. | ||
| He's heading to Asia. | ||
| Where is he going and who is he going to be meeting with? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, so the president is going to be spending a fair amount of the end of October in Asia. | |
| You know, he's visiting Japan later this week. | ||
| He'll be meeting with Japanese leaders. | ||
| Of course, Japan is just elected its first female prime minister, so that will be an interesting meeting to monitor. | ||
| And then later this month, at the end of the month, I should say, the president is also slated to attend this economic summit in South Korea. | ||
| And of course, the big question there will be whether he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping. | ||
| That meeting had been scheduled. | ||
| Now that's sort of in flux. | ||
| Trump had suggested maybe that meeting isn't necessary amid this sort of economic fallout between the two countries. | ||
| So that'll be the big thing to monitor when he's in South Korea later this month. | ||
| And then, of course, there's some chatter about whether there may be a meeting with Kim Jong-un arranged at some point. | ||
| So lots to monitor as the president at the end of the week prepares to head to Asia. | ||
| And finally, last week, President Trump announced that he would meet again with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, this time for a second round of in-person talks about a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. | ||
| Is there any update on when that may be happening? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, you know, last we heard from the president at the end of last week, he said within two weeks or so was kind of the timeframe for when he might meet with Putin in Hungary. | |
| You know, I think a lot of it will be determined by, we're expected to see this week a meeting between Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. | ||
| So once that meeting happens between those two individuals, we may see some more clarity on when Trump and Putin will meet. | ||
| You know, perhaps it'll come at the tail end of one of those Asia trips that we were just talking about. | ||
| But, you know, it's possible that by the end of the month or by early November, that meeting could be taking place between Trump and Putin as Trump really, again, we're seeing him kind of ramp up this push to end the war in Ukraine. | ||
| Brett Samuels is White House reporter for The Hill. | ||
| You can find his work online at thehill.com. | ||
| Brett, thank you for your time this morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks so much for having me. | |
| We will go back to your calls in this open form. | ||
| Let's hear from Donald calling from Elk Grove, California, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Donald. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Can you hear me now? | ||
| Yes, a little bit better, Donald. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, I'm like Donald Andrews. | |
| I'm totally disabled, and I get disability from Social Security and also my job, which is federal weapons comp, and comes every four weeks. | ||
| And next week is my time to get paid. | ||
| And I'm not sure whether I'm going to get paid or not. | ||
| So I'm going to be in bad, bad condition, bad shape if I don't get paid next week. | ||
| And that's basically why I'm calling right now. | ||
| I know a lot going on right now, but I just thank God for CSMAN. | ||
| But that's all I call for about this. | ||
| That's about that. | ||
| You know, what can I do? | ||
| Because I don't know what I'm going to do next week if I can depend on getting paid. | ||
| I'm totally disabled. | ||
| That was Donald in California. | ||
| Robert calling from North Carolina on the line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just wonder if everybody remembers the presidential debate with Kamala and Trump when Trump was saying they were eating the dogs and the cats in Canton, Ohio, the Haitians. | ||
| It turned out to be complete ridiculous lies, never verified. | ||
| And now he wants to give $40 billion to a faring country that's on the verge of collapse. | ||
| While he doesn't want to pay our own people, our own service people here in the United States of America. | ||
|
unidentified
|
When are you going to get wise that Donald Trump is for Donald Trump and his lies are all out there? | |
| You need to stop playing them over and over like he does. | ||
| Thank you very much and have a good day. | ||
| That is Robert in North Carolina. | ||
| Ronald is calling from South Carolina on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Ronald. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| I was at the No Kings Rally yesterday, and I was very surprised that we had probably three times more people than we had last time. | ||
| And one of the speakers asked everybody to raise their hand and don't be booing or anything like that who voted for Donald Trump last year, last election. | ||
| And I would say a third of the people there at the No Kings Rally voted for Trump. | ||
| And why were they there? | ||
| And some of the speakers got up and talked about he's a disabled vet, had a handicapped son, and he Trump did away with the programs, a lot of programs. | ||
| And this program was to train his son, he's 19 years old for a job to earn a little money later on. | ||
| And this disabled vet for his disability and the vet, he don't know how he's going to support his son, but we're done learning to get a job later on to feed a cell. | ||
| And when the lady said she don't ask people out there why they were there, they don't know why. | ||
| Most of them do. | ||
| They just can't express it, most people. | ||
| And then a lady drove by with a loaded gun pointing it at people, you know, people out there for No Kings Rally at the people, and they got the cops up on the stage and they thanked them. | ||
| They did a fine job. | ||
| They stopped that lady real quick, got her arrested. | ||
| But, you know, you ain't seeing no FBI agents coming in to see if she's the hate, you know, person or a terrorist or anything else, you know. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But when it comes to the religious right, they've got to have the FBI right then and there. | |
| So I'm very pleased with the rally yesterday. | ||
| I think the United States sees the direction they need to go, and they see Trump as they're steadily gaining insight to what this man is, even the people that's on the right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I applaud them for learning the lesson. | |
| It's just too bad. | ||
| We're going to have to live through it. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| That was Ronald in South Carolina. | ||
| Paul is calling from Lafayette, Louisiana, on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Paul. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for having me. | ||
| Two things. | ||
| I wanted to say this. | ||
| One, they said people say that the illegals have the right to be heard in the courts. | ||
| Well, a half a million illegals didn't show up to be determined whether they were legal to be here in the United States. | ||
| We have to pay for all these illegals. | ||
| I wish the other countries like El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and all of the other countries would give us money so we could take care of them. | ||
| By chance, that will happen. | ||
| I think myself, Mr. Trump is doing a good job, and we should be supporting him instead of going against him. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Paul in Louisiana. | ||
| George is calling from North Carolina on the line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, George. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking my call this morning. | ||
| I'm going to be very brief of what I got to say this morning. | ||
| I just wish the American people would wake up and start listening to lies, what's been taking place the last six years, especially. | ||
| How can you call everybody else criminals that want to protest in a peaceful way when you got people that's forgetting about the January the 6th when they stormed the nation capital and broke into the nation capital? | ||
| People got hurt, people died, and then they got sentenced to prison. | ||
| And then you're going to let those convicted felonies get out, going to release all those people. | ||
| Then you're going to put ice on the street with their face covered up. | ||
| We don't know who these officers are. | ||
| They don't give the badge number. | ||
| You can't see the face. | ||
| I still think that that's some of the insurrectionist people that he pardoned and have them out on the street stand by and be ready, like he said, stand back, but stand by. | ||
| And so it's terrible what's going on. | ||
| And also this, watch what's come up in the next few days with the House Speaker. | ||
| They're going to have the meeting and they're going to come back and have a press conference and say the same thing that Speaker Mike Johnson's been saying in the last three or four press conferences, accusing the protesters of being that they hate America. | ||
| They don't hate America. | ||
| They want to stand up for justice. | ||
| I just wish the American people would wake up and just see all these lies that they're saying and it's being shown that they are lies. | ||
| How much more is it going to take? | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| That was George in North Carolina. | ||
| Our last call for this open forum segment. | ||
| Next on Washington Journal, we'll talk with American Institute for Boys and Men's Richard Reeves about concerns over the current state of young men and boys in the United States. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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| Hosted by renowned author and civic leader David Rubinstein, each week features in-depth conversations with the thinkers shaping our national story. | ||
| Among this season's remarkable guests, John Grisham, master storyteller of the American justice system. | ||
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Joining us now to discuss concerns over the current state of young men and boys in the United States is Richard Reeves. | ||
| He is president of the American Institute for Boys and Men. | ||
| Richard, welcome back to the program. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We'll start by having you explain the mission of your organization. | ||
| Yeah, well, it's the first think tank to focus on the issues of boys and men. | ||
| And this is probably one of the shows where I can actually talk proudly about a think tank. | ||
| I was at the Brookings Institution for many years. | ||
| And there are lots of organizations that do a great job drawing attention to the challenges of women and girls in various ways. | ||
| And I really applaud and support their work. | ||
| But there wasn't really anybody that was saying, hold on, what's happening to boys and men in school, in the labor market, in terms of health? | ||
| And I see that as complementary to the efforts of the various groups and institutions that are working on women and girls issues. | ||
| So I see them as our sister institutions, if you like. | ||
| But that lack of an institution that was just every day waking up and saying, how are our boys and men doing? created something of a vacuum in our policymaking and in our understanding. | ||
| So let's start with that question. | ||
| How would you characterize the current state of young men and boys? | ||
| Well, particularly if they're from a low-income background or if they're young men or boys of color, the answer is on average maybe not so great. | ||
| So we're seeing flatlining wages for men without a college degree. | ||
| We're seeing a huge gap now opening up in universities and colleges. | ||
| There's actually a bigger gender gap today on college campuses than there was in the 70s. | ||
| It's just flipped. | ||
| And so women are further ahead of men today on college campuses than men were ahead of women back in the 70s. | ||
| And we've also seen, perhaps most distressingly, the rise of various mental health challenges. | ||
| And to be clear, there are lots of mental health challenges facing women and girls as well. | ||
| But we've seen a rise in the loss of life from suicide among young men of a third just since 2010. | ||
| We're losing 40,000 men a year right now to suicide in the US. | ||
| And I think that's the tip of the iceberg, which is a real mental health challenge that a lot of boys and young men are struggling with. | ||
| A piece that you wrote recently, the alarm bells are sounding for young men. | ||
| That's exactly what you're talking about, these issues, these alarm bells going off. | ||
| When did they start going off? | ||
| What is at the core of them? | ||
| Well, it depends which metric we're looking at, but educationally, this has been going on for some decades now. | ||
| And what's interesting about the education gap is that's true internationally. | ||
| As you can probably tell, I'm originally from the UK. | ||
| I'm working there too, working a lot in Europe. | ||
| And you see these education gaps have been opening up over the last few decades. | ||
| The wage trends for the last couple of decades. | ||
| I think the new development really has been this increase in the mental health challenges, particularly of young men. | ||
| So I think we're used to thinking of what social scientists call deaths of despair from suicide, alcohol, drug overdoses. | ||
| They really hit working class men through the Great Recession. | ||
| But we're really seeing those rising now among younger men and especially, as I said, these deaths from suicide. | ||
| So these have been, this has not happened in the last few years. | ||
| This has been building now over at least the last few decades. | ||
| But I think we're now seeing enough people noticing this combination of economic issues, social issues, family issues, forming families, struggling at school, to really, I think, as I said in that piece, to say, okay, the alarm bells really are now ringing much more loudly. | ||
| Something you point out in the post is that some men and boys are feeling lost. | ||
| Why? | ||
| I think the old days, so I'm in my late 50s now, and so my parents were in their 80s. | ||
| And I think for a lot of people, they just knew what the script was, right? | ||
| There was a certainty to the old world where men's job was to be the protector and the provider, especially the economic provider, the breadwinner. | ||
| And women's job was to largely be the family maker, the homemaker. | ||
| We've torn those old ideas up. | ||
| We've torn up those old scripts for women, thank God. | ||
| And we've said to women, you can be whatever you want. | ||
| And we've got a lot more to do on that front, by the way. | ||
| This is not mission accomplished for women and girls, but it is a different world. | ||
| And 40% of breadwinners now are women in the US. | ||
| And so that's a completely different world. | ||
| And so what I think we've done is we've replaced the old restrictive script for girls and women and we've replaced it with quite an empowering one. | ||
| You go, girl, you can be whatever you want. | ||
| The future's female. | ||
| And look at us here. | ||
| This is real advance. | ||
| We tore up the old script for men, which is you're going to be the provider, the protector. | ||
| We tore that up as well. | ||
| But we didn't replace it with anything. | ||
| And so what that's meant, I think, is that we have a generation of men coming up now who are genuinely asking the question of like, what am I supposed to do? | ||
| Who am I supposed to be? | ||
| How do I rewrite the script? | ||
| What does it mean to be a good man today as opposed to 50 years ago? | ||
| And we really haven't taken that question seriously enough. | ||
| That's created a vacuum, which I'm sorry to say is being filled by quite a lot of reactionary voices, especially online. | ||
| But that's our fault for not engaging with this question and these struggles that many young men and boys are having with empathy and understanding and curiosity. | ||
| And I realize that can be difficult to do, but if we don't do it, somebody will. | ||
| Richard Reeves is president of the American Institute for Boys and Men. | ||
| He is joining us for a discussion over the concern about the state of young men and boys in the United States. | ||
| If you have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now. | ||
| The lines for this segment are broken down regionally. | ||
| If you are in the Eastern or Central time zone, your line is 202-748-8000. | ||
| If you are in the Mountain or Pacific, the line for you is 202-748-8001. | ||
| Richard, you are also the author of a book. | ||
| It's titled Of Boys and Men, Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It. | ||
| One of the issues that you've already brought up, you already mentioned, was suicide and mental health. | ||
| How would you describe the outlook when it comes to that particular problem? | ||
| What we're seeing is a growing number of men and especially young men being more isolated. | ||
| So isolation and loneliness are an issue and obviously the former Surgeon General has drawn attention to this issue. | ||
| There are big class gaps here again. | ||
| I think it's worth pointing out that it is those from lower income backgrounds who are struggling most. | ||
| But young men are actually the most socially isolated and on some measures the loneliest group in American society now. | ||
| And that isolation, particularly for young men, I think can lead to some of these mental health challenges and not really feeling known. | ||
| One of the surveys I looked at recently from Equilundo, which works on men's issues, found that two-thirds of men under the age of 30 said they felt no one really know them well, knew them well. | ||
| Imagine that, like not knowing them well. | ||
| And so there's a sense of disconnection. | ||
| And what I think has happened is that the structures that used to make it easier, particularly for men, to feel bound into society, into family, et cetera, we're obviously marrying much later if we do or forming families much later. | ||
| Fewer men in work, fewer men in the labor market. | ||
| One in ten men in their early 20s are neither in college or in work. | ||
| We don't quite know exactly what they're doing, but that's 10% of young men who are essentially detached from those institutions. | ||
| That leads to isolation, which leads to mental health challenges, which can ultimately lead to real tragedy. | ||
| And mental health, one of those issues that is affecting the group. | ||
| You're talking about affects across the board, groups across the board. | ||
| The mental health care system, is it capable of meeting the specific needs of men and boys? | ||
| I don't think that we are thinking about the question that way yet, honestly. | ||
| I don't think we've thought, well, are we serving men's health needs well enough? | ||
| Because for a long time now, we have understandably focused on are we serving women's health needs well enough? | ||
| And because there's a tendency to think about the health profession as being a little bit more biased towards men, actually now that the overwhelming majority of mental health professionals are women, I'm actually startled to learn that like one in five psychologists and social workers are men now and used to be half just a few years ago. | ||
| So we're emptying those out. | ||
| And what we see from surveys is that a lot of mental health professionals, they actually don't feel equipped to deal with a lot of male mental health challenges. | ||
| And so we actually need to help them to get better. | ||
| And there are various programs now. | ||
| There's one called Men in Mind, which has been promoted by Movember, the men's health charity, which seems to just make mental health professionals a little bit more open to dealing with men's mental health challenges. | ||
| The other thing I would say is that we have more obvious entry points for around women's health, obviously around their reproductive health, they're getting to see the doctor much more, around childbirth, et cetera. | ||
| And we use those opportunities in the health system to kind of, while women are there, to be doing all kinds of other health interventions and checks with them. | ||
| We have an annual well-woman check under the Affordable Care Act. | ||
| We don't, of course, have an annual check for men, and we don't have that kind of interaction with men. | ||
| But when they become dads or when they're engaging with those institutions, we just do a better job of grabbing the men while we can. | ||
| But our health system isn't geared that way. | ||
| We have callers waiting to talk with you. | ||
| Jane is calling from New Jersey. | ||
| Good morning, Jane. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Mr. Rees, thank you first of all for the work you do. | ||
| It's very important. | ||
| I have a twin sister who is a psychiatrist here in New Jersey. | ||
| And she works primarily with families. | ||
| And there are two things that she sees as that has been trending over the last couple of decades. | ||
| And she thinks that we underestimate the addictive quality of pornography, A, and B, the thousands of hours that boys, some boys, and who do gaming with online. | ||
| And these two things are very addictive to these young men. | ||
| And she also sees a trending of these boys molesting younger sisters because of this exposure to pornography. | ||
| And she finds it very disturbing. | ||
| And I personally do too. | ||
| And if you could address that, I'd appreciate it, Mr. Rees. | ||
| Have a great day. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Thank you, Jane. | ||
| Well, I think on the last, obviously, any kind of internal family abuse is to be taken very seriously. | ||
| And I think it has to be said that that typically skews male. | ||
| The good news is overall, those forms of violence and crime are on the decline. | ||
| But I think Jane's point, or right through her sister, which is that we're in a whole new world now, this online world. | ||
| I completely agree. | ||
| Men are more sensitive to addiction anyway, almost any addiction you look at. | ||
| Actually, there does seem to be something of a difference here, that men are more vulnerable to it. | ||
| And I think that the shock of this online world now that men and women are navigating is something that we're only just coming to terms with. | ||
| I'm glad that you mentioned pornography, Jane, because that's something that actually it's quite hard, I think, to talk about. | ||
| It's hard to get good research on. | ||
| And where I think that that's just a whole new world. | ||
| And so understanding how two things can happen. | ||
| One is that for some men, any of these online activities can become genuinely problematic, addictive, getting in the way of their flourishing. | ||
| But there's also something that happens even well before that, which is even if they're not directly harming the young man or those around them, they're displacing real life. | ||
| And so there's a displacement effect here too, which is that actually while you're online, you're not doing something else. | ||
| And so it's what you're not doing while you're online that can become the issue. | ||
| Because like if you're gaming, and I have sons in their 20s, they use gaming to stay in touch with their friends. | ||
| It's very social, it's fun. | ||
| And there's strong evidence that men do use gaming to connect. | ||
| But of course, to excess, it's a problem. | ||
| And I think that pornography is a, is it actually shockingly understudied phenomenon right now. | ||
| It's one of the things that my institute is really determined to learn a bit more because there's a real tendency for people to just, nobody wants to be the porn professor. | ||
| Nobody wants to be the expert on porn. | ||
| But that means actually we just genuinely don't have a good understanding of it. | ||
| And so we do need to understand the impact of that on young men. | ||
| There's a tendency either to be very libertarian and say, how dare you? | ||
| Everyone should be sex positive. | ||
| It's great. | ||
| Brave new world we live in now where everything's allowed. | ||
| Or to be very puritanical and just immediately go to a kind of judgmental view on it. | ||
| And the truth is, as always, the truth is somewhere in between. | ||
| And we've got to engage with it with more understanding than we currently have. | ||
| And so I know that researchers say this, but this is genuinely an area, Jane, where we do need more research to help your sister. | ||
| Fernando is calling from Seattle, Washington. | ||
| Good morning, Fernando. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, ma'am. | |
| Good morning, Mr. Reed. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| This is a very interesting, interesting subject. | ||
| And my question is, do you have an opinion on what the president's role as an example to boys? | ||
| You know, me growing up, I'm not a Trump. | ||
| I don't like, and my main reason is for him setting up, for example, as a president, using social media as a weapon to influence the way he uses it. | ||
| Discuss it. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Well, thank you for the question. | ||
| I mean, I should stress that my work is strictly non-partisan. | ||
| But I do think that the role models that we have around us, particularly in real life, are very important. | ||
| But of course, to some extent, public figures as well. | ||
| And what I'll say is that the version of masculinity that I see a lot of young men searching for now is actually not one which is based on dominance or bullying. | ||
| For all of the online reactionaries that we see, for all some of the kind of political atmosphere we have around now, it's very interesting to me, for example, that if you look at young men and young women who don't have children, a much higher share of young men say they really want to become dads. | ||
| They really want to become fathers. | ||
| More than even than women are saying that now. | ||
| And so what I interpret that to mean is actually what I think is there's a hunger among young men for purpose, for connection and for meaning. | ||
| You're seeing all kinds of evidence for that. | ||
| And so what I think has happened politically is that I'll risk saying that I think the centre left and more on the Democrat side, there's been a reluctance actually to celebrate positive male role models for fear that would somehow seem anti-women. | ||
| And I think that created an opening for other politicians to come along, especially those perhaps on the right, who basically signal to kind of men is like, we like you, we like the things men do and have a very overtly kind of masculine affect, if you like. | ||
| And I think that that was an opening that was created. | ||
| I don't see that many young men aspiring to a form of masculinity which is based on dominance or bullying or that classically alpha male phenomenon. | ||
| But I do think they've been turned off by what they see as an overly prescriptive, narrow, and to some extent judgmental political left. | ||
| And so I think there's a space here for politicians from both sides to honestly not just talk about this issue, but just model it in a way that I think presidents can and should. | ||
| Let's broaden that beyond the president at HHS under the administration for children and families. | ||
| There's a section devoted to, quote, responsible fatherhood. | ||
| What do you think of federal programs providing those types of programs? | ||
| Yeah, well, it is very interesting that the program is called responsible fatherhood, isn't it? | ||
| Right built in there, there's an assumption that, of course, we have to just promote that kind of fatherhood. | ||
| It's very difficult to imagine a federal program for responsible motherhood. | ||
| And so there is right in there, there's something of a deficit model, although it's called responsible fatherhood. | ||
| The implication, of course, is that there's lots of irresponsible fatherhood. | ||
| So I think even the framing is a bit difficult. | ||
| But that's been around for a very long time. | ||
| It's had bipartisan support. | ||
| And the evidence for the effectiveness of those programs is candidly somewhat mixed. | ||
| We've had some successes with some programs, less so with others. | ||
| But I do think that it's very important that the government at all levels is supporting through paid leave policies, through flexible working policies, through healthcare policies, engaged and involved fatherhood. | ||
| The challenge is to do that in a way that recognizes that today that means a lot of dads who are not living with the mother of the children. | ||
| So the other part of those federal grants is healthy marriages. | ||
| And so there's always been this connection between to be a responsible father, you have to be in a, quote, healthy marriage. | ||
| And of course, that's not true anymore. | ||
| Most kids to non-college educated parents are born outside of marriage. | ||
| And so we have to kind of adapt our view of fatherhood and fatherhood policy. | ||
| So for example, one of the things that our institute, I think, almost uniquely calls for in the US is specific paternity leave. | ||
| So that dads should get leave as well. | ||
| If we really think that dads are important as parents, why do they not get paternity leave? | ||
| Now, of course, there's a whole issue about US paid leave generally. | ||
| But if we're going to have paid leave, why shouldn't dads get paid leave as well as mums? | ||
| And so that's one of the things we're pushing hard for. | ||
| Herbert is calling from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. | ||
| Good morning, Herbert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm interested in the comments the gentleman made in the beginning of before he started talking. | ||
| He said, men of colour. | ||
| What the heck, you know, what does that have to do with anything? | ||
| Men or men, idiot? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Interesting. | ||
| You call me an idiot there at the end. | ||
| It's not the first time, Herbert. | ||
| I can assure you, I'm a father, so I'm used to that. | ||
| Well, actually, it's a term that I don't really like, so I actually appreciate you calling me up on it, because I think the term in some ways, it disguises quite a lot of difference between different groups of men. | ||
| But the reason I raise that in particular is because it's very clear that on some indicators, the outcomes are much worse for black men, for example. | ||
| And so most, so just give you one example, living to 75 is seen as like a good lifespan. | ||
| Most black men don't hit that margin. | ||
| So the majority of black men don't make it to 75. | ||
| There are huge life expectancy gaps for black men. | ||
| The gap between black women and black men in schools and in universities is bigger than for any other group. | ||
| So for every two black women going to college now, there's only one black man. | ||
| And so when we think about this through a racial lens, the reason I do that is because I'm a researcher. | ||
| And so I'm going to look and I'm going to say, okay, here's the average situation, but let's look at it for specific groups as well. | ||
| So to give you a counterexample, the suicide rates are highest among white men. | ||
| They're higher among white men, especially from rural areas, than they are amongst most other men. | ||
| So the reason I raise that, Herbert, is because I think it's important as a policymaker to just look at the differences within groups. | ||
| And by the way, that's just as true of women as it is of men. | ||
| Like Hispanic women have very different challenges to white women, for example. | ||
| And so the reason I raise that is because I'm a researcher and that's where the data takes me. | ||
| Renee is calling from Iowa. | ||
| Good morning, Renee. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking the call. | ||
| I went to a women's college and I graduated in 1999. | ||
| And I did take some women's studies courses. | ||
| And there was always a lot of division between the women and the men. | ||
| There were men who attended these classes and there were a lot of volatile conversations. | ||
| I'm wondering if a shift of perspective to just gender studies would be more beneficial to us because in my view there are many genders, not only two. | ||
| And so it would encompass everyone and kind of take the easy exit of blame out of these conversations. | ||
| Yeah, thank you for that, Rene. | ||
| I actually think in the long run, we might be able to get to a world where we do think about gender gaps, gender equality, gender studies in this very even-handed way that you've just described. | ||
| Right now, when you say gender gap, gender equality, or in most cases, gender studies, that's really a euphemism for women's studies or women's health or women's gender gaps. | ||
| And so I like that idea. | ||
| I like the idea that we'll actually look just as much at what's happening to men and boys and masculinity and manhood as we are about women. | ||
| But that's not the case right now. | ||
| And so just to give you a specific example, if you look at all of the reports on gender equality that get most attention, so you get this ranking of countries, for example, the Global Gender Gap Report, it doesn't actually even consider gender gaps the other way. | ||
| So if there are gender gaps that are disfavoring boys and men, they don't count in that report. | ||
| So they're really women's gender equality reports, and they should really be called women's empowerment reports. | ||
| And so I like what you've said because it would bring an even-handedness to this. | ||
| One of the things I proposed was that the Gender Policy Council in the White House should not be abolished as it has been under the new administration, but that it should be expanded to include boys and men because under the Democrats, the Gender Policy Council refused to acknowledge or treat any issues about boys and men. | ||
| It said, no, with the Gender Policy Council, we do women. | ||
| So I like what you're saying, Renee, but I have to tell you that politically we're a very long way from that point now. | ||
| And I'd love a world where if you said gender, everyone just didn't immediately think women. | ||
| That's kind of my work right now. | ||
| But right now, it was impossible to get the Democrats to think about expanding the remit of the Gender Policy Council so that it would do what you've said to do boys and men as well and think about it both directions. | ||
| But of course, then the result of that was that when the new administration came in, they abolished it entirely. | ||
| Staying on the topic of education, Kristen in Portland, Maine sent in this question. | ||
| Says, good morning, Mr. Reeves. | ||
| I believe it would really help if more men were teachers in our public schools. | ||
| Currently, only 23% of teachers are men. | ||
| A good teacher can be a positive role model and a life changer. | ||
| Men should really be equally represented as teachers. | ||
| What are your thoughts on this? | ||
| I could not agree more with you, Kristen. | ||
| It's a big part of our work. | ||
| We're signing up a whole new program around this. | ||
| You're right. | ||
| It's 23% male now. | ||
| When Ronald Reagan was president, it was 33%. | ||
| So we've seen a 10 percentage point drop in the share of teachers who are male. | ||
| I agree with you that they're role models. | ||
| My own son is now a fifth grade teacher in Baltimore City, and I think of him a lot. | ||
| He's not telling the boys and girls in his class what it means to be a man. | ||
| He's showing them. | ||
| And I think showing, not telling, is important. | ||
| The other thing is that male teachers are much more likely to be coaches for various reasons, but they're like about three or four times more likely to be coaching after school. | ||
| And we have a decline in the share of boys playing sport, partly because of a decline in the share of coaches. | ||
| But I agree with Kristen. | ||
| I think there's hugely important male role models. | ||
| And I actually get quite frustrated when politicians talk about the need for positive male role models in many of these boys' lives. | ||
| You say, I agree, senator or governor. | ||
| And then I asked, what's your policy to increase the share of male teachers then? | ||
| And usually the answer is nothing. | ||
| Just as we have programs and policies to increase the share of women in STEM professions, scholarships, outreach programs, marketing campaigns, institutions to get more women into engineering and tech, and we need to do a lot better, especially on tech, but we have an infrastructure now to do that. | ||
| Where's the equivalent infrastructure? | ||
| Where are the equivalent policies to get more men into teaching? | ||
| And by the way, mental health care. | ||
| And I'm pleased to see a number of governors now really stepping up and saying, we've got to do something about this. | ||
| We cannot just let the male share continue to decline. | ||
| So I completely agree, Kristen. | ||
| And if you have any influence at all over local policymakers, this can happen at school level, at school district level, a state level, a federal level. | ||
| If we can't do something about that and getting more men into our classrooms, then I'm a little bit sceptical about the seriousness of politicians talking about this, frankly. | ||
| How does a man's job shape their well-being? | ||
| Massively. | ||
| And we're still in a place now where it is true that for men right now, more of their identity, more of their sense of self is wrapped up in their job. | ||
| Even as we've moved to a world where, as I said earlier, there's much more economic equality between men and women. | ||
| It is still very important for men to feel that they are. | ||
| They don't have to be the sole provider anymore. | ||
| But I think that feeling like they're economically contributing is very important to men. | ||
| And I'll also add that work provides a structure and a place and a purpose for all of us. | ||
| But it seems to be particularly true for men, perhaps because at least right now, women are still able to, on average, derive more of their sense of self from their role in the family than men are. | ||
| I hope that that will change in the long run. | ||
| But right now, that's a bit less true for men. | ||
| And so what that means is that unemployment, just at the average, does hurt men psychologically a little bit more than it does women. | ||
| Sharon is calling from Dave City, Florida. | ||
| Good morning, Sharon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning, C-SPAN listeners and Mr. Reese. | ||
| Thank you for what you do. | ||
| In this country right now we have a very pressing, urgent problem with school shootings and other violent crimes against innocent people that are predominantly committed by young men. | ||
| So we hear a lot about mental health issues and it being that being a product of that. | ||
| But women have mental health issues also and they don't just go grab a gun and blow away innocent people to to solve their problems. | ||
| So I see it more as an aggressive problem and a societal problem on how we raise our young boys. | ||
| And perhaps we need to focus more on them being empathetic and maybe concerned a little more about their fellow citizens. | ||
| So I'd like to ask Mr. Reeves, like, what do you see as an answer to solving this and the vicious cycle being, you know, coming to an end? | ||
| Because it is a very pressing problem in this country. | ||
| We've seen more and more of it. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Yeah, thank you for that question, Sharon. | ||
| It's true everywhere that and always that the overwhelming majority of violent crime is committed by men, especially young men. | ||
| So that's true in every human society and it always has been. | ||
| And so there's clearly something there, which means that if you're looking at perpetrators of violent crime, it's typically 95% of the perpetrators will be men. | ||
| I think the question then becomes, and that share doesn't change with the level of crime, right? | ||
| So even as you bring down crime, and I think it's important to note that over the last few decades, violent crime rates have gone down very significantly in the US, have almost halved overall. | ||
| And so we are seeing a long-run decline in overall violent crime. | ||
| I do want to stress that because I sometimes think there's a tendency for us to forget the kind of broader picture, which is that we have made significant progress in reducing violent crime. | ||
| As to what happens then in a particular country or a particular situation, unfortunately one of the reasons why, of course, the US has this issue with school shootings is because of the prevalence of an access to guns in the US. | ||
| You don't see the same in other nations where there's just much prevalence, more prevalence. | ||
| And I will add that, of course, even given the concerns about these horrific events, young men are still very much more likely to use a gun to take their own lives than they are to take somebody else's. | ||
| It's a big risk factor for suicide as well. | ||
| And I just think the challenging thing here is to acknowledge the tragedy of these horrific events, but not to make the mistake of assuming that that's indicative of what's happening to our young men in general. | ||
| And that's a very difficult thing to do. | ||
| It's almost a difficult thing to say because you don't want to sound like you're in any way diminishing the tragedy of those events. | ||
| But that is nonetheless, by definition, an infinitesimally small minority of those young men. | ||
| And I'm very worried that we don't in some way sort of indicate that that could be that potentially they're all headed in that direction when obviously that's not true given the decline in the rate of violence overall. | ||
| You've mentioned suicide a couple times when it comes to this group. | ||
| Talk a little bit about the trend. | ||
| How has it changed over the years? | ||
| One of the things that's really struck me is that there is this rise in suicide rates among men and among women in the US. | ||
| So this is not just a male issue, but it's four times higher among men than it is among women. | ||
| Is that up until about 2010, most of that rise was among middle-aged men. | ||
| And so we saw it as men in their 40s and 50s. | ||
| And that did seem to be related to what's happening in the economy and the difficulty we had around the Great Recession. | ||
| Since 2010, that pattern has radically changed such that it's actually leveled off. | ||
| the suicide rates have thankfully leveled off among middle-aged men. | ||
| They haven't really gone down. | ||
| I will say there's a bit of a race difference there too. | ||
| They've leveled off less for white men. | ||
| But they've really risen for young men. | ||
| And so it's men under 30, men under 35 where we've seen this kind of really big rise in the loss of life from suicide. | ||
| And in fact, by some estimations, it's actually higher now among younger men than it is among middle-aged men, which is, as far as I know, has never happened before. | ||
| So I think it's a different question when you're starting to lose your 25-year-olds to suicide for reasons that, frankly, we don't yet fully understand. | ||
| But I think it comes back, Tammy, to your earlier point about isolation and a script and a sense of not really knowing what your place in society is. | ||
| I think that's the gap that we need to fill. | ||
| Robert is calling from Fayetteville, North Carolina. | ||
| Good morning, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Mr. Reeves, I just want to commend you on what you are explaining to the people because that's what I've been talking about at my grassroots level ever since the 70s up until this time. | ||
| And when people, people would say a couple of decades. | ||
| No, this has been going on ever since the 70s and now it's bearing some really bad fruit. | ||
| And I hate to say I told you so, Marcel. | ||
| I turn around and if I will develop, I'm developing a program of mentorship with young kids. | ||
| It was called the Cadet Corps in New York. | ||
| I'm working with some people. | ||
| But I would love to continue to collaborate with you because I'm in the fight now and I'm 69 years old and I get people knocking on my door and I'm mentoring them. | ||
| And I've seen everything that you said. | ||
| Thank you very much, sir. | ||
| Well, let me first of all thank you for your work, Robert. | ||
| Mentorship is incredibly important for young men and young women. | ||
| One of the challenges right now is a lack of male mentors. | ||
| So if you take a formal mentoring program like Big Brothers, Big Sisters, they actually have a much longer waiting list for the boys than they do for the girls. | ||
| It's very often 12 months for the boys, three months for the girls, because they don't have enough male volunteers. | ||
| That's why governors around the country are working on this. | ||
| Recently, Governor Gavin Newsom issued explicitly a call to men and pledged to try and increase the share of men in those roles, get 10,000 more men in California into those roles. | ||
| I think other governors will follow suit. | ||
| Boys don't become men just with the passage of time, and I think it does require other men to do the work that you're doing. | ||
| I will just say one thing about this has been going on for a while now, Robert, since the 70s. | ||
| The challenge is that there is still quite a lot to do for women and girls. | ||
| And in the 70s, the share of CEOs that were women of Fortune 500 companies was 0%. | ||
| It's now 10% of CEOs are women. | ||
| A third of our members of Congress are women. | ||
| 3% of venture capital goes to female firms. | ||
| And the reason I'm doing that is because, in saying all of that, is because the challenge here, I think, for a lot of people is to think both of those thoughts at once. | ||
| And the reason people can be resistant to the work around boys and men is because they somehow think that it means rolling back the gains of women and girls, that it's zero-sum. | ||
| And that zero-sum thinking, I think, has really gotten in the way of positive work on this. | ||
| I'm just as committed to continuing to do the work for women and girls, as I suspect you are, as to do the work for boys and men. | ||
| But too often, folks, frankly, on the left and the right, say we have to choose, and that to be in favor of boys and men and worrying about them somehow means you're anti-women and girls, or vice versa. | ||
| And that's just not true. | ||
| Barbara is calling from Blacksburg, Virginia. | ||
| Good morning, Barbara. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, and thank you for C-SPAN. | |
| Some years ago, I remember seeing something like 60 Minutes where they did a feature on a timber frame temple in Japan. | ||
| But every 20 years it was half of it was dismantled. | ||
| The timbers were taken out and replaced by another generation of young people, young men I imagine at that time. | ||
| And so every generation learned the craft of timber frame. | ||
| And on our first trip out west, I remember meeting people who had worked on the WPA projects to build picnic shelters and welcome centers and restrooms. | ||
| And they took such pride in the work that they had done over those decades before. | ||
| And I'm wondering if instead of sending some young men and women for certain crimes to prison, maybe they would be better off being sent to a public works project that would benefit everybody, not just them, but all of the citizens of our country. | ||
| I know I came from a family of carpenters and engineers, and we were always doing great do-it-your-home, do-it-yourself projects. | ||
| And I just feel so sorry for someone who has ideas in their minds, but are unable to carry it through because they don't have the skills. | ||
| Yeah, well, thank you for sharing that story. | ||
| I'd heard the same story. | ||
| I haven't seen it myself, but it's a rather beautiful tradition of each generation taking their part in building and rebuilding. | ||
| What's the line about, you know, tradition exists to remind us of the things we would otherwise forget? | ||
| And what it speaks to, I think, is this need for all of us to feel a role, all of us to feel like the community needs us, needs us to build, to rebuild, to raise our kids, etc. | ||
| I think that the sense of feeling surplus to requirements, of feeling unneeded is fatal to everybody. | ||
| And right now, that's affecting, on average, more men than women, because at some very, very basic level, I think it's a bit less clear to men that the tribe needs us. | ||
| This is a risky area to get into, but at some level, like every sci-fi novel, every sci-fi movie, where you recolonize another planet, always sends way more women than men. | ||
| Of course. | ||
| You need more women. | ||
| Women's role in keeping the tribe going is just more obvious. | ||
| And I think to some extent more physical. | ||
| I think that for men, we do need, to some extent, we need structure. | ||
| We need a script. | ||
| We need ways to find our place within society. | ||
| Every society has worked very hard to figure out how to help boys become men. | ||
| And it comes back to the earlier conversation that Robert was leading around mentorship, etc. | ||
| I think that's incredibly important. | ||
| And the other thing I'll say is just on average, one of the most striking findings in the research is that technical forms of learning, CTE as it's called, career and technical education, vocational apprenticeships, they're good for many girls and young women, but they're especially good for boys and young men. | ||
| There's something about that more quote hands-on learning. | ||
| And I'm using that advisedly. | ||
| I don't mean putting all the boys in shop class, but boys and young men seem to do a bit better with more applied forms of learning rather than the abstract learning that we see in so many of our schools now. | ||
| And so I'm just inspired by your story about the Japanese temples to think that actually there is something about the physical creation of things that just on average seems to appeal a little bit more to boys and young men. | ||
| So that's, if we can't do Japanese temples, maybe we could invest more in vocational training. | ||
| Ian is calling from Orlando, Florida. | ||
| Good morning, Ian. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning. | |
| So I. Sorry, one second I got on speaker. | ||
| So I was wondering if you think there's any way that we can change the whole stereotype or stigma of how men are supposed to be just strong and not really react to their emotions. | ||
| I'm 33, and for as long as I've been around, I haven't seen that really change. | ||
| And I know that's pretty much been a thing for a couple hundred years, probably longer at this point. | ||
| And I figured it would have gotten better by now, but that is not something I've seen. | ||
| So I'm just wondering if you have an opinion on that. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Yeah, well, I'm sorry that you feel it hasn't changed. | ||
| It is a real issue that some researchers refer to this as the man box. | ||
| In other words, the box that we're kind of trapped within, and we're only supposed to behave a certain way. | ||
| We're not supposed to show vulnerability or emotion, etc. | ||
| And it's important to say that whilst men very often police men around that behavior, it's also true that women will sometimes police men around that behavior too. | ||
| And so that leaves a lot of men quite confused. | ||
| So John De La Volpe, who's a researcher, says that a lot of men are suffering from masculinity vertigo, which is on Monday you're being told you're too masculine and you need to cry more and be more emotional and more available and be more like a woman. | ||
| And on Tuesday you're being told you're not masculine enough. | ||
| You need to work out more, bulk up, go to the gym, eat more protein, be more assertive, etc. | ||
| And then on Wednesday, you're back to being told that you're too masculine. | ||
| So I do think we're in this really messy and difficult period of change now. | ||
| I'm really encouraged by the fact that young men, at least in surveys and in my own experience and observation, have made real progress on this issue, that they are much less likely to come down hard on a friend for expressing emotion, et cetera, than would have been the case recently. | ||
| So just a bit of data point on it, because I'm a data person. | ||
| The share of boys in high school who've been in a physical fight has halved in the last 15 years or so, halved. | ||
| I have three sons all in their 20s. | ||
| None of them have been in a serious physical fight. | ||
| I think that's an extraordinary change just in the space of a generation, which is this kind of change in physicality, physical violence, bullying, etc. | ||
| So I'm sorry you don't feel it, Ian. | ||
| I agree that there's much more to do. | ||
| And to some extent, I think we have to model it. | ||
| I also it's interesting that some of the kind of some of the figures who were getting most attention from young men, somebody like, I don't know if you know Jordan Peterson, but the Canadian psychologist who got a huge following, the guy is constantly weeping. | ||
| He's constantly emoting. | ||
| And so it's interesting how some of the figures who are dismissed as quite reactionary in many cases are actually modelling an incredible emotional vulnerability. | ||
| Now, I'm not endorsing everything Jordan Peterson says, we have serious disagreements, but it is nonetheless interesting. | ||
| I think that's part of his appeal. | ||
| I think he actually is quite emotionally available. | ||
| And we just need more politicians and leaders and teachers and coaches showing that you can actually do that as a man. | ||
| But also, you can also not do it. | ||
| You don't have to do it. | ||
| Sometimes it can feel a little bit like an order to be more, cry more, for example. | ||
| and we can't cry to order. | ||
| We only have a couple minutes left, but for young men who may be listening or somebody who knows a young man who may be struggling with something we talked about today, feeling lost, a mental health challenge, maybe not knowing what they want to do for work or facing an addiction, what advice do you have for them or where can they go to get help? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Well there are obviously amazing resources online, AIBM.org, we act as a bit of a clearinghouse for some of this work. | ||
| I've mentioned Movember, who amazing mental health charity. | ||
| If you're a man out there, maybe of a certain age, a little bit older, there is a boy or a young man in your life who you need to call or text right now and ask them, how are you? |