CSPAN - Washington Journal 10/26/2025

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Oct. 26, 2025 07:00-10:01 - CSPAN

03:00:56

Washington Journal 10/26/2025

Participants

Main

kimberly adams

cspan 33:36

Appearances

barry diller

00:43

brian lamb

cspan 00:49

chris coons

sen/d 01:24

donald j trump

admin 01:19

joe cardinale

00:37

mehmet oz

admin 02:24

Clips

dasha burns

politico 00:17

david rubenstein

00:02

jack ciattarelli

00:08

james lankford

00:26

justice amy coney barrett

scotus 00:25

kiron skinner

fox 00:20

mikie sherrill

rep/d 00:12

sheriff joe arpaio

00:22

ted gunderson

00:06

tom homan

00:04

Callers

dennis in chicago

callers 00:18

gene in arkansas

callers 00:09

mike in alaska

callers 00:55

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		And Democratic pollster Nancy Zedankowicz on the politics surrounding the government shutdown and campaign 2026.
		And later, Brookings Institution's Patricia Kim covers President Trump's trip to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum and his upcoming meeting with China's Xi Jiping.
		C-SPAN's Washington Journal starts now.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
		It's Sunday, October 26, 2025.
		It's also the 26th day of the ongoing federal government shutdown, and healthcare is at the heart of the fight, with Republicans and Democrats at odds over expiring Obamacare subsidies.
		At the same time, even those in private insurance plans are facing higher premiums.
		Our topic this morning, are you concerned about rising health care costs?
		We have special numbers for this segment.
		If you have insurance through the Affordable Care Act, that number is 202-748-8000.
		If you're on Medicaid or Medicare, that number is 202-748-8001.
		If you have private insurance, usually through your employer, that number is 202-748-8002.
		If you're uninsured, that number is 202-748-8003.
		That's also the number where you can call, where you can text us if you'd like to, but please be sure to include your name and where you're writing in from.
		We're also on social media at facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and on X at C-SPANWJ.
		Now, we got some new data about just how much premiums may be rising under the Affordable Care Act for many Americans, and that reporting was in the Washington Post on October 24th, just on Friday, with an exclusive saying that average Obamacare premiums are set to rise 30%.
		Documents show.
		The higher prices affecting up to 17 million Americans who buy coverage on healthcare.gov reflect the largest annual premium increases by far in recent years.
		That article going on to say that premiums for the most popular types of plans sold on the federal health insurance marketplace, healthcare.gov, will spike on average about 30% by next year, according to final rates approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and shown in documents reviewed by the Washington Post.
		The higher prices affecting up to 17 million Americans who buy coverage on the federal marketplace reflect the largest annual premium increases by far in recent years.
		The higher premiums, along with the likely expiration of pandemic-era subsidies, means millions of people will see their health insurance payments double or even triple in 2026.
		That article going on to say that premiums nationwide are set to rise by 18% on average, according to an analysis of preliminary rate filings by the nonpartisan health policy group KFF.
		That, combined with the loss of extra subsidies, have left Americans with the worst year-over-year price hikes, the worst year-over-year price hikes in the 12 years since the marketplace is launched.
		Nationally, the average marketplace consumer will pay $1,904 in annual premiums next year, up from $888 in 2025, according to KFF.
		KFF being the health policy polling and news site, and they have a graphic on their site representing just how big of a jump that is in terms of annual out-of-pocket premium payments for Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollees.
		This is comparing 2025 to 2026 with that $888 compared to that $1,904.
		And then going down in terms of just who is going to feel that, it says here that enrollees across the income spectrum can expect big increases in premium payments.
		The annual premium payments would increase for subsidized enrollees by an average of 114% if those enhanced premium tax credits expire.
		And this is breaking it down by, for example, what would be experienced by a 45-year-old individual versus a 60-year-old couple with those dollar amounts changing.
		Now, then, there's also additional polling here from the Associated Press in terms of what most Americans think of in terms of our question this morning in terms of health care cost.
		What Americans think about rising health care costs according to a new AP Nork poll, finding that most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive as they make decisions about next year's health coverage and a government shutdown, keeps future health costs in limbo for millions.
		About six in ten Americans are extremely or very concerned about their health costs going up in the next year.
		The survey from the Associated Press Nork Center for Public Affairs Research finds a worry that extends across age groups and includes people with and without health insurance.
		Going down here to some charts representing some of that data, excuse me, showing that economic and health care issues are top of mind for many Americans.
		With the percent of U.S. adults who say the following issues are important to them personally, when you look at health care, it's the second issue right after the economy, with 81% of Americans polled saying that health care is extremely or very important.
		Now, I should also mention that this morning, President Trump is in Asia.
		He's been traveling there for multiple meetings related to trade as well as other issues.
		Story also here.
		You can see the president there when he arrived in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and he's having additional meetings today.
		And there's some coverage here from the Associated Press that trade tensions apparent that the president has attended a ceasefire ceremony, excuse me, a ceasefire ceremony in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
		Let's get to your calls, though, on our question of the morning about whether or not you're concerned about rising health care costs.
		We'll start with Rob in New York, who is using the ACA insurance marketplace.
		Good morning, Rob.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		Thank you for C-SPAN and keep up the good work.
		You do a great job.
		So, yeah, I just want to remind all my, I'm one-third Democrat, I'm one-third Republican, I'm one-third Independent, if that makes any sense.
		So lay that out there.
		Pre-existing conditions, can't wait for them to come back, where people are excluded from coverage for pre-existing conditions.
		It's equally as devastating a situation as is the doubling of the price of monthly premiums.
		And it's just, you know, we have an administration and a president who is all about publicity stunts.
		The more negative publicity, positive publicity, anything to get the television ratings where he wants them, including messing with the health insurance and the health care of billions of people.
		It's just a big publicity stunt, negative, positive, T V ratings.
		Focus on the man.
		Keep thinking about him.
		Can't get him out of your mind.
		We're stuck with it.
		And we're going to have plenty of MAGA.
		I have plenty of MAGA friends, more than I have Democrat friends.
		And I'll tell you, their premiums are going to go up too.
		And I'm waiting for my MAGA friends to finally, you know, throw in the towel and say, you know, something, enough is enough.
		Now, this is costing me money.
		The man I voted for is costing me big time, big bucks.
		And, you know, see through just the sea of lies that we've been receiving all these years.
		Maybe this will be the straw that breaks the MAGA camel's back.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So Rob, do you have a sense of how much your own premiums may be going up in the next year?
unidentified		You know, yes, exactly.
unidentified		Actually, what you put up there from about basically from about $1,000 a month to about $2,000 a month, round numbers.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And what are you planning on doing?
unidentified		Paying it.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, what choice do you have?
		Rob was mentioning what Trump supporters may be thinking about these rising health care premiums.
		There's a story here in NBC News that a majority of Trump supporters back extending Obamacare subsidies, according to the poll.
		Without the tax credits, people will lose coverage, putting their health and finances at risk, according to experts.
		Most of President Donald Trump's supporters back keeping the enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans, the central obstacle in ending the government shutdown, according to a new poll from the nonpartisan health policy research group, KFF.
		This was from earlier this month, back on October 3rd, when the story came out.
		That poll was conducted in late September, just days before the government shutdown.
		More than 22 million people received the subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year unless Congress extends them.
		Next up is Melvin in Richmond, Virginia, who uses either Medicare or Medicaid.
		Good morning, Melvin.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimberly.
unidentified		Thank you for taking my call.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you use, Medicare or Medicaid?
unidentified		I am on Medicare.
		I am a senior citizen, 71, so I've been retired and been on Medicare and have been blessed, knock on wood, that for an old guy, my health hasn't been too bad.
		So I really haven't had incurred any additional cost as far as having to go to the hospital or any of those things.
		I just go see my doctor a couple times a year, and I get my medicine, and I'm on some drugs that I have to spend $2,000 a year in order to get free.
		But after that, I've been pretty blessed.
		But the point in general is that Ronald Reagan once asked the question, are you better off than you were four years ago?
		Well, we need to ask the American public, are you better off than you were just one year ago?
		Donald Trump claimed that he was going to do all this work to lower prices, and of course, including health care.
		He told us he had a great health care plan that he was going to put out there.
		That's what he said for the last 10 years.
		We haven't seen a thing.
		But as far as me personally, I've been blessed.
		Now, of course, I know that it only takes one thing to end up in the hospital and to have to spend a certain amount of out-of-pocket stuff to cover my deductibles because I can't afford to get anything other than basic Medicare so that I have a lot of deductibles as far as if I have to go to the hospital, if I need surgery or something like that.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Melvin, if you can pause for a moment, don't hang up.
		I want to read you a story, a bit of a story from Kiplinger magazine about Medicare specifically.
		And it says, your Medicare costs are set to soar what to expect over the next decade, that Medicare beneficiaries will face higher premiums, deductibles, and surcharges starting in 2026 and continuing over the next decade.
		And going on to explain that, similar to Social Security, Medicare is facing funding issues.
		You may have heard that the hospital insurance fund for Medicare Part A is expected to be able to fully pay scheduled benefits only until 2033, three years sooner than last year's projection.
		However, it's not as if the cost of Medicare will stay steady and suddenly increase in 2033.
		Instead, Medicare beneficiaries have a more immediate problem in the form of rising premiums and surcharges starting in 2026 and continuing over the next decade.
		The 2025 Medicare Trustees report projects a steady increase in Medicare Part B premiums and IRMAA surcharges over the next nine years.
		The projections are based on expected rises in health care costs, particularly for outpatient hospital services and physician-administered drugs.
		It's crucial for retirees and those approaching retirement to understand these projections for proper financial planning.
		Melvin, had you heard anything about that?
unidentified		Not necessarily, but it doesn't surprise me, Kimberly, because you know, if you think about it, if I wanted to have, if I wanted to go out to dinner to eat a steak, I have the choice as to where I can go to buy my steak.
unidentified		But when it comes to my health care, basically, I choose normally the hospital that's closest to me because in case I have an emergency, I want to be able to go there.
dennis in chicago ▲ ● ▼		Okay, so there's really no, there is no marketplace for health care because you can only get this, there's not enough variety, there's not enough, what do you call it, like when you're in the market and you have a chance to choose where you spend your money, you know?
unidentified		And so the fact that these guys are running out of money is because the hospitals or whoever, the insurance companies or whoever are, you know, again, gouging the American public because it's money coming out of, you know, from the government.
		Everybody knows that if you want to have a successful business, connect to the government because the government gives away free money.
		You know, they just print it and give it away.
		Okay.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Barbara is in Georgia and uses the ACA insurance marketplace.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Barbara.
unidentified		Yes.
		What I want to say is that I'm on Medicare, the old-fashioned Medicare, and I do have to have a subsidy to go with it.
		And what I'm scared of, I'm scared of how much it's going to cost me next year.
		And then I wanted to say that Trump has doubled his wealth, $169 million since he's been in office.
		And his son has also doubled his wealth.
		Well, each one of them has.
		And Yes, Barbara?
		And each one of them has doubled their wealth.
		Okay, and now he can't and he's building the ballroom.
		He can't even find enough money to even help Medicare and Medicaid.
		He's giving a tax break to the rich, and he can't even find enough money to help the people on the Affordable Care Act.
		For instance, like these people work on a low-paying job and they can't afford to have insurance, but he has done away, he's done away with the subsidies.
		So I just don't know how these people are going to have insurance.
		And through the SNAMP program, he can't even find enough money to even help anybody that's poor.
		I'm disgusted with him.
		I thank you for letting me speak.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay, next up is Sandra in Ocean View, Delaware, who has private insurance.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Sandra.
unidentified		Well, thank you for taking my call.
		I just wanted to say one thing about the charges of any kind of medical care.
		Now, I had a raccoon jump out of my trash can one day and he scratched my hand.
		He wasn't, it just happens.
		I went to the doctor, seven rabies shots for the first day, three every other day, no, three within three or four days.
		$26,000 for seven rabies shots.
		Now, that to me is an outrageous charge.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Was that out of pocket, or did you was your insurance covering that?
unidentified		Well, I had supplemental too, and it didn't cost me anything.
		But still, to think that $26,000 for seven rabies shots, they've had that rabies shots for years.
		It's not a new drug or anything.
		But I just think it's an outrageous expense.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Susan is in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on our line for folks with ACA insurance.
		Good morning, Susan.
unidentified		Hey, good morning, Kimberly.
		One of the first things I want to make an analogy is when the millionaires and billionaires got their tax cut, they were able to put the difference right in their pockets.
		When you're on the ACA and you're working, you contribute to your own tax subsidies through your federal income tax.
		I wish you would bring that chart back up, and I believe that it showed people by income groups here.
		Premium would go up so that you could see people who are on the ACA, the federal income tax that they pay will probably more than cover the subsidies that they get.
		I know for myself, when I was on the ACA insurance and working, the federal income tax that I actually paid more than paid for my subsidy.
		And I wasn't making $100,000 a year.
		I was making less than that.
		So like I said, they can make permanent the tax cuts when the millionaires and billionaires put their tax cut back in their pockets.
		But they can't make subsidies permanent when people who are getting the subsidies are probably paying for their own subsidies because they're paying federal income tax.
		Thank you.
		Okay.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Alan is in Fort Pierce, Florida, and is on private insurance.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Alan.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thanks for having me on the call.
		I agree with what many of the callers have said.
		You've got some interesting comments.
		My concern is that the tax cuts that were given to the wealthiest are causing a problem because the income disparity, the wealth disparity especially today is worse than it was before the stock market crash of 1929.
		So the wealthiest are wealthier than ever and the misconception that the upper middle class has, they don't want to be taxed any higher, which I can agree with.
		But the wealthiest can be taxed a little bit more to help offset the cost of these plans.
		And it's not going to break the bank for the wealthiest who have had these huge tax cuts.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, earlier this week was doing an interview with NBC News and said that these tax subsidies, excuse me, the ACA subsidies should not be extended.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Here's him.
mehmet oz ▲ ● ▼		You know, the reality is the ACA has been sick from the moment it was created, and it got a lot sicker during COVID.
		There were changes made, like these enhanced subsidies you're asking about.
		They're added on top of the already robust subsidies that exist.
		Probably 92% of the money that's spent on insurance premiums are part of the original ACA, and that wasn't even enough, apparently, because they added more money during COVID.
		So the question really isn't, should we put more money into it or how much more and continue these COVID-era subsidies?
		It's how do we actually restructure the system, Kristen, so it works.
		And to do that, you need smart people like the kinds of folks we have in this beautiful building I'm speaking to you from, which houses HHS and the agency I run Medicare and Medicaid.
		But they're not here now.
		They're furloughed.
		They're at home.
		So all the actuarials, the insurance experts, all the folks who have spent their whole life studying how to provide better quality insurance to folks from the bottom end of the income spectrum, those making, you know, 100 to 400% of the poverty level, those folks aren't here.
		And I don't, you know, my first time through government, as you know, I was sitting where you were for most of my adult life, you know, trying to actually be in the private sector, but I never really thought that the shutdown would last this long.
		I always assumed that the Democrats had made their point.
		They were upset about the One Big Beautiful bill.
		And ACA came into the conversation as well, and they would sort of get everyone back to work, so they come up with some serious answers.
		But it takes time to come up with major policy steps.
		But can I add one thing, Kristen, because you can ask questions?
		Yeah, please.
		The issues here, I mean, we're obviously in open enrollment for Medicare and just for everybody out there, for the seniors.
		Don't be alarmed.
		Medicare itself, everyone loves it.
		A Democratic Republic is no one's touching Medicare.
		So Medicare.gov is open.
		And if you need to go through open enrollment and take an extra fresh look, please do that.
		But the accusation that the One Big Beautiful bill also needed to be repealed sort of surprises me because we know that it cut out a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse.
		And especially when it gets to specific issues like claims that there are no illegal immigrants getting money through the system, so why would you bother picking on that?
		We went back and checked, Kristen, which is my job.
		I had investigators actually look at the numbers.
		And just this week, we learned that there's more than a billion dollars spent on illegal immigrants just over the past few months in just half a dozen states on illegal immigrant health care, which means if you live in Texas, your federal taxes are being used to pay for illegal immigrants in California.
		That's not how the system should work.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Back to your calls.
		The question is: are you concerned about rising health care costs?
		Let's hear from Bradley in Marietta, Georgia, who is uninsured.
		Good morning, Bradley.
unidentified		Yes.
		Well, first off, I hate that term.
		There's no such thing as a legal person, okay?
		These people are over here to work.
		They're undocumented or whatever.
		But the companies, the companies that are hiring these undocumented workers, the companies that are not paying people a living wage, onto the insurance problem.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, actually, Bradley, you raise an interesting point because Dr. Mehmet Oz did make that claim about undocumented immigrants.
		It's something that's been fact-checked many times.
		Here's a reference here in PolitiFact to a similar claim made by JD Vance that they wanted to give hundreds of billions of dollars in health care to illegal aliens, according to JD Vance.
		And the fact check is about Republicans have falsely tied the shutdown to Democrats wanting health care for immigrants illegally in the United States.
		Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are generally ineligible for federally funded health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and subsidized private insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
		But Democrats' funding proposal would restore access to Medicaid in the Affordable Care Act marketplace for legal immigrants who will lose access once certain provisions of Republicans' tax and spending law take effect.
		But go ahead with your comment, Bradley.
unidentified		I should say, I mean, even if they are undocumented, so if someone is like having a medical emergency, like we're not going to take care of them, that's the whole problem with like a profit motive in health care.
		My daughter, she was like sick to her stomach, and she went to the mercy room, and I get hit with like a $13,000.
		She was there for like, they didn't want to test.
		She was there for like 12 hours, a $13,000 bill, which, you know, getting linesuckers.
		But it's just, I'm telling you, it boils down to the companies and basically not paying people a living wage.
		And health care is like a, it's a right.
		It should not, people should not be going to bankruptcy.
		People should not be like, I mean, the fact that I know for a fact, like, I probably will never have universal health care or anything like that.
		But the fact that knowing that my children probably won't either, that makes me very, very angry and very worried.
		But thank you very much.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What did you do when you got that $13,000 bill, Bradley?
unidentified		I just put it in the other pocket.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Next up is James in Rome, Georgia, who uses the Affordable Care Act marketplace for insurance.
		Good morning, James.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		What the Democrats need to do is let these I'll get to ACA, but next month I'll be doing Medicare where I work.
		But right now I pay on the ACA.
		I get a small subsidy for what I pay.
		But what the Democrats need to do is this.
		They need to let those Medicaid expansions that they put in during COVID expire.
		Mostly it's going to hurt these red states.
		The people that voted for Trump, they are the ones who are getting the Medicaid because they did not expand Medicaid up under the eight up under when Obamacare calls start calling Obamacare.
		That's the reason why they hate it because President Obama put this in.
		But it will basically hurt these red states, these southern states, and the states did not expand Medicaid up under the ACA.
		And then I also blame the Democrats because they did not expand Medicare like they said.
		They were going to drop it to 55 like they said they was going to do.
		But the Republicans are like this.
		They're voting against their own interests and stuff.
		They hurt their own self because it's no illegalist that's actually getting this.
		That comes up under Ronald Reagan put that in.
		Well, anyone that goes to the emergency room will have to get treatment.
		That's it.
		And if you really look at it, what the Democrats are doing, they're going out on a limb for Republican voters in these red states.
		That's basically what's happening.
		And Medicare, if you look at it, it's for people who have actually done work.
		They're cutting from it.
		People paying all their lives, just like Social Security, they're paying all their lives.
		But let those Medicare, Medicaid expansions expire.
		It's going to hurt red states.
		It's going to hurt Trump voters.
		See, what Trump does.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, James, I actually want to show a map from USA today that actually gets at that exact idea that you were raising there.
		This looks at the states with the highest percentage of residents enrolled in Medicaid and showing that there's a pretty heavy distribution in many of the red states, with places like Kentucky and Louisiana having more than 30 residents per 100 that are on Medicaid.
		And this is the U.S. average is 23 residents per 100 people enrolled in Medicaid.
		And this article is about how the tax law would cut health care funds related to Medicaid and where that would show up the most.
		And that ties to the number of people enrolled in Medicaid.
		All right, let's hear from Jim in Winter Park, Florida, who's on our line for folks who use Medicare or Medicaid.
		Good morning, Jim.
unidentified		Hi, Kimberly.
		Please give me the time that you have given to all these people that are talking about we need to pay for everything.
		You know, the rich have to pay for everything.
		First of all, the rich already pay 90% of the taxes in this country.
		You have had people on that have explained that to people.
		They're already paying their fair share.
		Yes, they might be paying it in different ways than somebody that goes and does a W-2 and goes and has their taxes done, but they're paying it through their business taxes.
		They're paying it through all the things that the reason why they have gotten so rich is because they have hired people and ran businesses and paid their taxes and paid their Social Security and paid everything that goes in.
		So you got to start stopping these people from rambling on about rich need to pay more.
		It's ridiculous.
		Now, getting back to I am on Medicare and I am on a supplement with Medicare and I pay like $400 a month on my supplement because I want better insurance than the Advantage plan because the Advantage Plan is almost worthless at this point.
		But on top of it, we've had Schumer, Jeffries, and almost every congressperson and senator on the Democratic side on your show on all these little sites that you show, talking about that people's insurance payments, their deductibles or their payments, were going to spike by thousands of percent.
		Thousands.
		I remember Jeffries talking about people that were paying $1,000 a month and now they're going to pay $20,000 a month for their insurance or even $1,000 a year and they're going to pay $20,000 a year.
		You put up actual facts in the beginning of your show that showed that it's not thousands of percent, it's 20 to 30 percent.
		So once again, we have the Democratic Party, a bunch of liars that are just telling people to scare them half out of their life because they want these people to vote for Democrats.
		And on top of it, all of these jerks that are in the Senate, and I'm talking about how I'm talking about Republicans and Democrats, all of them.
		You should put up a screen that shows how much money they had when they got into Congress and into Senate and how much money they are worth now.
		They're all millionaires because they steal from the people, their constituents.
		The other thing I'd like to show is you have on the bottom right-hand side, you always show how many days now in the past month that the government shut down.
		Well, on the other side of the screen, you should be putting up the debt clock, specifically how much each tax pay person, people that are working and paying taxes, have to own it right now.
		It's $330,000 that every working person is owing.
		And if they add this $1.5 billion, that number is going to increase to about $380,000 immediately.
		You should put up a picture on your screen of the amount that $38 trillion comes out to.
		It's 38 and then four groups of zeros.
		That's ridiculous.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, thank you, Jim.
		And we did just put up that debt clock there that shows those numbers that Jim was talking about.
		$327,507 per taxpayer if you were to divide up the national debt that way.
		Let's hear from Aaron in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who's on private insurance.
		Good morning, Erin.
unidentified		Good morning.
		We get insurance through my husband's job.
		We both work full-time, but his offers better coverage through Blue Cross Blue Shield.
		And, you know, we aren't, we don't qualify for any type of state or federal or anything like that, but we have three teenagers.
		We both work hard.
		And I am really scared about our copays going up, our costs going up.
		They already take a significant amount out of this check every week for our insurance.
		I'm 44 years old.
		I had open heart surgery two years ago, and I'm on a lot of medication to keep me alive.
		And I'm facing surgery again, probably within the next year or so.
		We're still paying off the out-of-pocket amounts that we owed for that last surgery, you know, a week in the ICU and that type of procedure.
		It's a lot.
		You know, hundreds of thousands of dollars that we do have a portion of that we have to pay.
		So I am very, very worried about our costs going up.
		Our kids are going to be heading off to college in the next couple of years.
		You know, we get by, but we have to really watch every dollar that goes out.
		And I'm worried about how much we're going to be having to pay now.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Next up is Aaron in South Hill, Virginia, who uses the ACA marketplace.
		Good morning, Aaron.
unidentified		Yes.
		Yes.
		How you doing?
		My name is Aaron.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Just make sure you turn down the volume on your TV, Aaron, and then go ahead with your comment.
unidentified		All right.
		I'm on Medicare.
		And my Medicare is costing me like $183 a month.
		Now, I advise everybody to have a supplementary insurance because if not, I'm a cancer survivor.
		The amount of money that they charge me for my treatment insurance is outrageous.
		But because I have a supplementary insurance, it doesn't cost me anything.
		People are not informed on how to get different insurance.
		Some people are sitting around thinking like Medicare is going to pay for everything, and it's not.
		Medicaid pays a little more.
		But even with Medicaid or Medicare, you still need a supplementary insurance if you want to survive.
		Now, this money is also not tax-deductible, which you pay for your supplementary insurance, which to me seems an out-of-pocket expense to over $500 a month.
		That's over $5,000 a year, aside from the $183 they take out each month.
		So if they're talking about our premiums are going to rise in the next year or two because they're cutting these supplements and they want to take Medicare away and, of course, raise the price of Medicare, people are really going to have to sit down and talk to someone to advise them what insurance company we need.
		And the federal government really needs to get involved with this because the American people will not be able to survive in the case of you do have a pre-existing ailment, like I'm a cancer survivor.
		If I didn't have a supplementary insurance, Medicare would not pay for everything that I need.
		And that doesn't include transportation, which Medicare pays, but Medicare doesn't.
		Medicare doesn't pay for transportation.
		Medicaid will.
		So there's a lot of things people need to get informed about when it comes down to this health insurance and getting the proper care.
		Now, if they raise the prices, we're all going to have a problem if the government doesn't step in and fix this issue because it's a major problem, especially if you've got a pre-existing ailment and if you're sick.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I think we've got the idea.
		Let's hear from Scott in Ithaca, New York, on our line for folks on Medicare or Medicaid.
		Good morning, Scott.
unidentified		Yeah, I'm going to try to fly through it.
		I feel like a man without a party.
		I'm still registered as a Democrat, but I used to have Affordable Care Act, then I went to VA Care, and I have to sign up for Medicare very shortly.
		And what people need to understand, though, is that states like New York allow government-appointed commissions, the Department of Financial Services.
		They're the ones who actually raise the cost of health care premiums with the Affordable Care Act every year.
		It's not the federal government.
		It's the state.
		The states themselves have insurance commissions that do that.
		And those are appointed by governors, so they have some control over stacking those commissions.
		And the subsidies right now are a band-aid to the raising of these premiums every year.
		So it's like this is just a very temporary fix.
		Those premiums need to be capped, in my opinion, somewhere like 2015 or earlier levels.
		And the reimbursements of the drug companies, like the caller that called in about the rabies treatment, that in itself, there's so many spokes to this problem.
		It's, you know, the cost of drugs, the cost of treatments and everything like that.
		It's almost like college tuition.
		You know, you have student loans, so now the colleges will charge more and more because they're student loans.
		It's the same thing with the subsidies.
		It allows the rates to increase because you're artificially paying for these increases.
		And I really think that the Medicaid and Medicare should be essentially prorated as far as income, especially with Medicaid.
		There's like all or none.
		Like you don't pay anything in some instances, and some people are working and they should be paying into it, and they don't seem to pay enough.
		And I think basically Medicare A, I believe, should be free for everyone who's a U.S. citizen.
		The supplemental plans should be affordable.
		But we need to get to the point, like that caller with the rabies thing.
		Some of the costs for some of these things are hidden and they're just way over the top.
		And some of the drug companies are making hand over foot.
		They're making huge amounts of money.
		By the way, the reason you see all those commercials on TV for drug companies is because they have so much money for marketing and advertising.
		They have like the most money of all the companies in the United States for doing that.
		So I would love to be on your show.
		I'm an oral surgeon in upstate New York.
		I'd love to be on your show to address some of these problems more because there's just this misnomer.
		The states are the ones who raise the ACA premiums, not the federal government.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So Scott raised several interesting points there.
		Among them, the idea that these insurance subsidies were helping out insurance companies more so than the actual consumers, which is a similar argument made by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, and they issued a document or a statement on this back on October 20th.
		The Democrats' failed health care policies protect subsidies for wealthy Americans and insurance companies.
		And getting to the section on insurance companies in particular, they're saying that Democrats are defending unfair taxpayer-funded subsidies for large health insurance companies while Republicans are supporting patients and providers, particularly in rural communities.
		Nearly all Obamacare premium tax credit dollars constitute direct spending going to large health insurance like United Healthcare, not patients.
		Over $100 billion of the annual spending goes directly to large insurers.
		The PTC, the premium tax credit, is the largest refundable tax credit in the tax code, and over 83% of it is direct subsidy spending, not offsetting any owed taxes.
		Let's hear from Lee in Alexandria, Virginia, who uses private insurance.
		Good morning, Lee.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'm so glad that I came on after the oral surgeon from upstate New York because I would like to reinforce a point he made about states.
		A lot of the media conversation, our national dialogue, has been about the federal government.
		And people are really overlooking the states.
		And it is indeed true that the states will have to take more responsibility, probably, and that we need to look at the states and what the states are going to do.
		And if we're going to be politically active, we need to be active in our local communities.
		And I would like to challenge C-SPAN to actually bring on people from all the states.
		I would love for that to be part of our national dialogue.
		Thank you very much.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		John is in Chillicothe, Ohio, on our line for folks on Medicare or Medicaid.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning, C-SPAN.
		Yeah, I think a lot of your callers, some of them are on point, but a lot of them are missing the big picture.
		You know, the cost of going to an emergency room or a hospital is outrageous.
ted gunderson ▲ ● ▼		And it's like it's a big business, just like your higher education is a big business.
unidentified		Now, do we just keep throwing money at them and supplementing them?
		You know, you can throw all the money in the world at them, but they're going to keep raising their prices.
		Like I went to the emergency room, and I was there for like two and a half hours for a bladder issue, and the bill was $3,200.
		My Medicare paid for it, but where is that money coming from?
		And I think you're missing the point on the illegal aliens.
		Yeah, they're not Medicare.
		Medicaid's not covering them.
		But when they go to an emergency room, where does that money come from that they pay the hospital?
		Where is that coming from?
		And it's a strain on our economy and our nation.
		So I think mainly we're missing the point.
		You know, it's insurance, they're going to keep raising their rates because they've got to cover, you know, the exorbitant prices that the hospitals charge.
		So maybe we should look at that instead of just throwing more money at it.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
unidentified		That's all I got to say.
unidentified		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Tony is in Lawton, Oklahoma on our line for folks with private insurance.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Tony.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I appreciate you taking my call.
		I just want to address a couple of the callers that said the data was wrong that you guys showed on the screen.
		There's been a lot of talk about the details of health care, how much emergency room bills are, who's covered, who's not, et cetera, et cetera.
		I think we need to look at this from a 35,000-foot viewpoint.
		And that is that we are the only industrialized nation who does not offer health care.
		This is not a cost problem in that perspective.
		It's not a moral issue in that perspective.
		This is the way the world does it.
		We have got to get on board with this.
		And you simply do this.
		I'm in education.
		I'm a teacher.
		If I think another teacher is teaching a lesson better than me, I take their stuff and they're glad to give it.
		Are we not able to copy the best health care system for our citizens of over 330 million people and just make it our own in a cultural context?
		I just don't get it.
		But the other callers simply can't talk about extremes of different parts of this industry and link it together and present it as a fact.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Republican Senator James Lankford and Democratic Senator Chris Coons were on C-SPAN earlier this past week on our ceasefire program.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Here's a portion where they discuss their differing approaches to rising health care costs.
unidentified		Democrats had the House, the Senate, and the White House.
		They created a COVID-era subsidy for the Affordable Care Act, plus it up.
		Now they want to be able to make that permanent.
james lankford ▲ ● ▼		The problem is we do know there's a lot of fraud on the lower end on it.
unidentified		That's been well validated on it.
james lankford ▲ ● ▼		There are insurance companies that have signed people up that don't even know they're on it, but the insurance companies are just getting payments for that on the lowest end.
james lankford ▲ ● ▼		On the highest end, we have people that are a quarter million dollars a year of income and they're getting subsidies on it.
unidentified		We're saying, hey, why are we doing that?
james lankford ▲ ● ▼		This also has a big challenge that we look at the cost of the Affordable Care Act and the cost of commercial insurance.
unidentified		And I just went back to my state.
		We take six years of the Affordable Care Act.
		The cost on those premiums went up 200%.
james lankford ▲ ● ▼		The cost on commercial insurance at the same time went up 29%.
unidentified		So I think it's reasonable for us to raise our hands and say, are we going to continue to pour subsidies to insurance companies when we're seeing the rate be 10 times faster of increase in that pocket than it is on the commercial side?
		I think it's a reasonable conversation.
		It's just hard to have that in a shutdown.
dasha burns ▲ ● ▼		Oh, I was going to say that.
		Now the conversation is not even being had.
		And to your point about SNAP benefits, so November 1st, premiums plus people lose really important food assistance.
		We've already seen folks going to food payments.
chris coons ▲ ● ▼		It's probably kind of rich to hear grave concerns about losing SNAP benefits when the Big Beautiful bill and President Trump's illegal actions took billions of dollars away from hunger programs overseas and at home.
		Part of what has eroded the trust that is essential to negotiating in good faith is the ways in which President Trump, through both Doge and actions by the OMB director, illegally took billions of dollars away from appropriated programs.
		Since Richard Nixon, we haven't seen an administration misuse the power of the purse to take away things that Congress and the president signed into law and were supposed to be expended and yet got clawed back.
		The Food Bank of Delaware called me in a panic when they got told abruptly that they were losing truckloads of food to distribute to hungry Delawareans.
		So bluntly, there are members negotiating.
		There are members exchanging ideas.
		Several of the things that Senator Lankford just raised, Democrats are willing, if not eager, to talk about to improve program integrity around the Affordable Care Act and sustain it.
		A core reason why we didn't have shutdowns during the Biden administration was they were negotiating.
		James was the most capable negotiator on dealing with border security issues and actually hammered out a really good deal.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And you can watch Ceasefire Today, this week's episode, immediately after Washington Journal, starting this morning at 10 a.m. Eastern.
		Now, back to your calls on whether you're concerned about health care costs.
		Lewis is in Kenilworth, New Jersey, on our line for folks on Medicare or Medicaid.
		Good morning, Lewis.
unidentified		Yes, I'd just like to know how I can join Medicaid because my Social Security is only $1,400 a month.
		My taxes on my house are $850.
		That leaves me about $500 to pay an electric gas water.
		And my insurance is going to go up too if I don't join Medicaid, which I think I should do.
		I'd just like to know how to do that.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Angel is in Tennessee on our line for folks with private insurance.
		Good morning, Angel.
unidentified		Oh, yes.
		I just want to say that Donald Trump, we all elected him.
		We thought he would do better than Obamacare.
		We thought he would make Medicare for all the United States like every other government in the whole U world.
		We thought Donald Trump would make a bigger, bigger, bigger splash with Medicare for everybody in the United States and see all the United States.
		That's all I got to say, and I thank you very much.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Anita is in Albany, Georgia, on our line for folks using the ACA insurance marketplace.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Anita.
unidentified		Good morning.
kiron skinner ▲ ● ▼		And I'd just like to say that although I'm on the ACA program with a lot of people call it the Obamacare, I had a medical emergency a couple of years ago.
unidentified		Had it not been for the ACA, I don't know what would have happened to me.
		I know I would have been bankrupt.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Kel is in Jessup, Georgia, also on our line for folks with Medicare or Medicaid.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Kel.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you this morning?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good, thank you.
unidentified		What are your thoughts on health insurance costs?
		My thoughts on health insurance costs.
		I think right now, the premiums which are offered, you have ACA, Medicare, and Medicaid, and then you have the Supplement Part C as well as the supplementary insurance.
		And then you have your private insurance, HMOs, PPOs, et cetera.
		For the uninsured, I know that if they're not within a certain bracket, they are suffering tremendously.
		And right now, despite the fact that the health care coverage programs are offered in such a way that they're now, it's like it's contingent upon whether or not you can afford an insurance plan or a premium, or you're going to be an applicant of Medicare, Medicaid.
		I at one time tried to buy a privatized insurance policy based on how my grandmother used to pay into her health care premium.
		And I was denied.
		I was told that they no longer offer premium insurance plans that you have to be like Medicare, Medicaid, or somewhat you got to linger on off your own boat.
		Now, the flip side of that is the home office insurance or visits.
		If a provider tends to incorporate himself in malpractice and insurance fraud, now the stipulation holds that HIPAA violations can be violated as well as discretion and a line for folks with private insurance.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Paul.
unidentified		Hey, yeah, there's a few myths out there, and some people are putting out some actual facts, which I agree with one lady from Arlington who actually said people are overlooking the state's responsibility in a lot of this.
		And this goes to the shutdown where the Democrats are holding out because they want the subsidies to be extended permanently.
		Right now, they don't expire until the 31st of December.
		The problem is that the actuaries have to put out what their increases would be.
		Now, I'm under both, I could call on both lines, private or Medicare because I am on both of them.
		Now, with the Medicare, the Social Security is going up 2.6%.
		Now, my Medicare is going to go up that much or more.
		They're predicting my Medicare payments, which started when I first started Social Security at $145 a month, up to $206 a month.
		And as far as the Medicaid go, this is where the state is responsible.
		From what I understand, it's a plausible deniability that the Democrats are calling that illegals and undocumented are not eligible for the program, and the federal government prevents that.
		However, the money is given to the state, and it is the state that handles that money.
		Now, from what I understand, there are 14 states that do allow for the undocumented to apply for these social programs.
		So that is where the problem with the illegal and the undocumented people saying that they're getting the subsidies or on the program.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Beth is in High Falls, New York, also on our line for folks with the ACA insurance marketplace plans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Beth.
unidentified		Good morning.
		First, let me start with what I think is the solution to this mess, and that's that we have a really robust two-tier system where we allow basic coverage for every American citizen, and then we have a free marketplace for buying in on the supplement or the expanded second tier.
		I'm in the position of 62 years old in New York, insurance through the marketplace, but it does not cover me when I go to another state.
		For six months of a year, I am a snowbird going from New York to Florida, and my New York ACA exchange insurance will not cover me in Florida.
		What has really disappeared is the independent private insurance marketplace.
		It's gone.
		We either fall into being old enough for Medicare or enough for Medicaid or ACA insurance.
		The great change in the country was we were an employer-based insurance market.
		Well, I'm not working.
		I'm retired.
		And we have not, we've lost that private insurance market where I could live in, get coverage in any state.
		I broke ribs in Florida.
		My New York insurance would not cover me.
		So we don't have something.
		I really want both parties to honor the idea of an expanded option for Medicare.
		I'm willing to pay full tilt to buy into Medicare.
		This isn't fraud.
		This isn't illegals on the rolls.
		This is just the option to buy into a very good working program in America.
		And I'm very proud of the American Medicare system.
		And that's my comment.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Christopher is in Chicago, Illinois, on our line for folks on Medicare or Medicaid.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Christopher.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good, thank you.
unidentified		Thank you.
		I have kind of a bone to pick with C-SPAN regarding the coverage of the cuts to Medicare that will occur over the next four years at $550 billion.
		You haven't spent one minute, let alone an entire segment, on the cuts to Medicare.
		It's all about Medicaid day after day.
		And Medicare covers 67 million Americans.
		And it is the premier health care plan in America for retired and elderly individuals.
		And I really think that you do a disservice by not paying particular attention to the Medicare cuts specifically.
		It's always been Medicare.
		So please do an entire segment on Medicare specifically.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		We did mention earlier this article in Kiplinger magazine.
		It's not a whole segment, but there was some reporting that we highlighted from Kiplinger about those changing changes to Medicare costs over the next decade.
		That Medicare beneficiaries are set to face higher premiums, deductibles, and surcharges starting in 2026 and continuing over the next decade.
		Nikki is at the Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina and is calling in on our line for folks on the ACA Insurance Marketplace.
		Good morning, Nikki.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Fine, thank you.
unidentified		Good.
		I am a certified application counselor and a community health worker for Fairly Qualified Health Center in South Carolina.
		And so I do assist our patients and consumers in this area with the marketplace.
		And so I've heard a few things about Medicaid expansion, and someone stated about that it's the federal government, but it's your state that you need to look into when it comes to the Medicaid expansion in these different states.
		I know for our state, it was on the table at one time.
		So it's important that we look at these smaller elections than the bigger ones because those are the ones, those smaller elections are the ones that are going to fight for us when it comes to these type of situations.
		And when it comes to the marketplace, and these premiums are going to climb extensively, that's a lot of people that is going to hurt.
		And so, yes, the tax credit can step in and assist if you qualify, but being a certified application counselor, we've seen where there are a lot of brokers and agents that's out there in the area that are falsifying and wrongly signing up our seniors and our Medicaid and Medicare eligible consumers in the area.
		And not just us in South Carolina, but it's everywhere.
		So we have to remember that these smaller elections are the ones that matter the most because those are the ones that are going to be in there fighting for us and as they say, have the boots on the ground for us.
		But it's so important that we look into these things.
		And it was a gentleman that stated he needed to apply for Medicaid, but he didn't know what to do.
		So being a community health worker, if you have a community health worker in your area, you need to most go and link up with that community health worker because we are set to assist people with resources.
		And so there are resources out there that we could possibly assist with when it comes to this situation that's going to hit us come the new year.
		There may be something in your hospital system.
		I have some assistance program.
		There might be some pharmacy assistance program.
		I know in South Carolina we have Well Vista, but it's for people that's uninsured.
		So you're going to just need to look into the different resources in your area and most importantly, link up with a community health worker because we're the ones that got our boots on the ground in your area that's going to do what we can to assist you.
		And I do wish everybody prayers as we start this new year with these different changes in our Medicare and our ACA.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		We are about out of time for this segment, but later on this morning on Washington Journal, we're going to have even more discussions.
		Next, coming up later on, we'll have the Brookings Institution's Patricia Kim, who will join us to discuss President Trump's trip to Asia for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, APEC, as well as his scheduled meeting with China Xi Jinping.
		But after our next break, we're going to talk about the politics of the government shutdown and campaign 2026 with Republican pollster BJ Martino and Democratic pollster Nancy Zadankowitz.
		We'll be right back.
unidentified		Media mogul and studio executive Barry Diller will be our guest tonight on C-SPAN's Q&A.
		In his memoir, Who Knew, Mr. Diller speaks about his career in Hollywood and his longtime relationship with fashion designer Dion von Furstenberg.
		He is also responsible for creating the movie of the week and television miniseries, including Roots.
barry diller ▲ ● ▼		For 11 nights, 100 million people watched Roots and almost the entire U.S. population.
		And that's binding.
		Values get inculcated there.
		All sorts of shared experience takes place.
unidentified		Barry Diller with his memoir, Who Knew, tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q&A and all our podcasts on our free C-SPAN Now app.
		C-SPAN, official media partner of America 250.
		Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold new original series.
		Today 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.
chris coons ▲ ● ▼		And what do you hope most people will take away from your book?
justice amy coney barrett ▲ ● ▼		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 today at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
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		Browse through our latest collection of C-SPAN products, apparel, books, home decor, and accessories.
		There's something for every C-SPAN fan, and every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations.
		Shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org.
		Washington Journal continues.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back for our roundtable discussion.
		We're joined first by BJ Martino, who is the president and CEO of the Terrence Group.
		Welcome back to Washington Journal.
unidentified		Oh, thanks for having me.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And also we have Nancy Zedunkowitz, who's joining us remotely from Austin, Texas, who is the founder of Z to A Research.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back.
unidentified		Good morning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, thank you both for joining us on day 26 of this federal government shutdown.
		I want to show a poll looking at, it's a recent Quinnet Piak poll indicating that 45% of Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown, 39% blame Democrats, 11% blame both equally.
		Shutdown still isn't over yet.
		Is either party benefiting Nancy?
unidentified		I tend to think that when we're talking about a shutdown, both sides are losing.
		You'll notice that only 45% said that one side was to blame, so that's only a plurality.
		We don't get to a place where even 50% are agreeing with that.
		And, you know, I don't know that this is actually having the impact that past shutdowns have.
		So in the past, I feel like this was more politically damaging to be seen as part of the problem of not reopening the government.
		And it's actually changed from the idea of who is to blame for the fact that we don't have an open government to a question about health care and what we're going to do on healthcare.
		And what was really interesting is I saw a poll that found that even Republicans want Democrats to succeed in this mission to bring Republicans to the table to compromise on making sure that people can continue to have affordable health care and health insurance.
		And even 40% of Republicans in a recent poll said that they would have a more favorable opinion of Democrats if they were successful in reaching a compromise on health care with Republicans through this shutdown process.
		So I think there is potential here for Democrats to have a big victory, but it really depends on what happens next.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What happens next, BD?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I mean, is there an end in sight?
unidentified		It doesn't appear like there's an end in sight right now.
		Whereas Nancy, I think rightly says there's usually no winner in a government shutdown.
		I think both sides are doing the things and saying the things that are appealing to their base and trying to fight for that middle.
		Clearly, Nancy wants to make the shutdown about health care.
		Republicans have said we've passed a clean CR.
		It's time to just do that.
		We can have discussions after that.
		But the issue going at the numbers is that for Republicans, this shutdown is not as painful, perhaps, as it's been in past shutdowns when Republicans have held the presidency or been in control of Congress.
		At the same time, the Democratic Party has a real problem with their base right now.
		There is only 60% in some polls of Democratic voters who approve of Democratic leadership, of approve of the Democratic Party.
		There's a real portion of the base who wants this fight.
		And right now, they're the ones driving this.
		It is Chuck Schumer's desire to not be primary in the Senate race coming up that is causing them to really listen to that fighting base and not back down.
		So neither side sees a reason to back down right now.
		So where the end in sight is, I don't know.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		You know, health care has become one of the big talking points of this conversation.
		And I want to go to this recent AP NORC poll that looked at how important health care is to voters right now.
		And it's a second issue right after the economy with 81% of people in an AP NORC poll saying that it was extremely or very important.
		Nancy, do you think the Democrats have been successful in making this less about extending the budget and more about health care?
unidentified		Absolutely.
		I think that's pretty undoubted.
		And I will note that health care is one of the more important issues in a midterm election.
		When I asked voters in surveys, which costs are you most concerned with, which one is the most pressing for you, it is health care, health insurance, especially when we turn to a midterm electorate with slightly older voters.
		And they're about to all get these notices come November 1 saying how much more their insurance is going to cost.
		And I think that's where the rubber is going to really hit the road.
		But even the president has acknowledged that this is a fight about health care.
		So I think this has really elevated an issue that is important to voters and also where it's probably one of the only areas where Democrats really have a strong edge actually in terms of trust over Republicans.
		It wasn't always that way.
		That moved around the time of the Obamacare fights of 2010, but has now rebounded.
		It's the reason why Democrats won in 2018 and so on.
		So this is certainly a welcome development for Democrats.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I want to play a clip here of the GOP House campaign committee ad attacking Democrats for their approach to this shutdown.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Let's listen.
unidentified		Democrats shut it down.
		Democrats are pushing for the shutdown and they will get blamed if it happens.
		Democrats refuse to fund the government.
		So now military troops, police, and Border Patrol lose their paychecks.
		Because of Democrats, veterans, farmers, small businesses lose critical funding.
		Disaster relief, cut off.
		Democrats are grinding America to a halt in order to give illegal immigrants free health care.
		Tell Democrats, stop the shutdown.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And of course, Democrats have their own messaging as well.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Here's an ad from the Democratic-backed, the Democratic-backed Senate Majority PAC that attacks Maine Senator Susan Collins for supporting, as they claim, higher prices through cuts in health care programs, tariffs, and support for the government shutdown.
unidentified		The tariffs are hitting Alaska the hardest, making almost everything more expensive.
		Dan Sullivan voted for the tariffs, driving up costs.
		And it gets worse.
		Dan Sullivan voted to cut Medicaid and raise health care costs, too.
		He's even willing to shut down the government to do it.
		So next time you see those prices going up, call Dan Sullivan and tell him to stop the tariffs.
		Stop cutting Medicaid.
		Stop raising our costs.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Not quite the Susan Collins ad attacking Susan Collins, but a similar idea, BJ, here.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think in terms of who's winning the messaging wars?
unidentified		Right now it is.
		I think the Republicans who, again to my point earlier, are shifting the blame.
		The blame now, and you see those numbers, about six points blaming Republicans more.
		As Nancy said, it's not a majority.
		It's just a plurality.
		And it's about where the numbers for the president are in terms of his approval, disapproval.
		So this is really, in many ways, a stalemate.
		Both sides are fighting this to the stalemate right now, which for Republicans feels like a victory because given the blame that's come on them in the past.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Do you think it's going to matter in the midterm elections?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I know we're a ways out.
unidentified		Shutdowns, the shutdown itself, given if it closes before the year end, is not going, you're not going to see ads written about the shutdown per se in the political campaigns of 2026.
		You will certainly see ads about the pain that has been inflicted on voters, perhaps because of the shutdown.
		And the Republican ad is not just a hyperbole.
		It's echoing some of the points that Nancy made and that other Democratic lawmakers have made is that they're willing to put this pain upon voters because it is the only leverage they have.
		They realize that they need Democratic votes in the Senate to get through this, and they're willing to let this pain happen to those who depend on the government right now, including our military, so that they can get the things that they want.
		That is why this shutdown is different than others, because I think there's a number of voters who realize that there is blame to be put on the Democratic side this time for not getting the government open, even though those issues, and I'm not disagreeing that health care is unimportant to voters, but to say we need to have that discussion next.
		And many Republicans have said we're willing to have this discussion.
		We need to have this discussion about health care next.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Nancy, there are elections coming up before the midterm, some starting very soon in the first week in November.
		We've got Virginia's governor's excuse me, races in Virginia, races in New Jersey, not to mention the New York City mayoral race.
		How much do you think what's happening here in Washington is going to affect some of these state and local races coming up even more, even quicker than the midterms?
unidentified		I'm not too sure.
		It may be more of an impact in Virginia, where there's a lot of federal workers.
		But even more than this shutdown, I think people are more concerned about, especially in Virginia, all of the cuts that have happened because of Doge and because of the one big beautiful bill.
		And so I think that that is actually the sort of slashing of government and disrespect of the institutions that get people paid and the people who go to work every day to protect our country and to make sure that people get their snap benefits, their Social Security benefits, and so on on time that actually is going to have more of an impact.
		It's kind of rich to hear the idea that we really must reopen the government and that it's so important from a party that just decided to chop it into pieces with such little regard for all of these federal employees.
		I mean, do you not remember Doge?
		It wasn't that long ago.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Talking about those Virginia races, in particular with all those federal workers, is this going to be a bellwether election that may give us a hint of how the country is responding to the second Trump administration?
unidentified		I think there's always the tendency to look at these off years, but just to understand that these are both states, New Jersey and Virginia, in which Kamala Harris won by six points.
		And so you have to take that into consideration when looking at the results in these elections and the fact that Northern Virginia is part of the DC company town.
		As Nancy's point, they are more paying attention to and affected by some of the impacts of the federal government.
		But in cases like New Jersey, you see that race looking particularly close.
		I think in Virginia, especially given the revelations about the candidate for Attorney General and his text, that has had an impact not only in that race, but I think is going to have an impact as you look up the ticket going into November.
		So there's, I think, two competitive states going on right now.
		And there's a lot in particular in the state that is impacting it.
		So you can look at some of these and try to read the tea leaves, but I think you have to understand the fundamental differences for each of the states and what's at play.
		In the New Jersey mayoral race, I think it's clear that this is part of the issue and the new energy that's coming out of the Democratic Party is coming from this anti-establishment portion.
		The feeling, this herbal tea party that's emerging across the country, the anger at old establishment Democrats coming from those who are the younger, oftentimes more to the left.
		You see it in Maine with the response to Janet Mills being named.
		You see it in other races.
		There's an energy on the left that's coming from it.
		And this is part of the reason why a lot of the Democratic establishment is, it took so long for Hakeem Jeffries to actually endorse the candidate for New York Mayor because they're a little bit afraid of that energy that's coming from that portion of the party.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Herbal Tea Party, that's a new one.
unidentified		I love it.
		Nancy, did you have thoughts on some of that?
		Oh, gosh.
		I think there's going to be two big things that are going on when it comes to New Jersey and to Virginia and other things that are going to be on the ballot.
		So number one, costs are still a number one issue.
		I think there's a lot of people who are still hurting out there.
		And so this is what we're hearing most of the messaging about in all of these races.
		And that doesn't matter if you're in Virginia or if you're in New York City.
		People are struggling with these costs.
		And that is what campaigns, Democratic campaigns and Republican campaigns are really focused on.
		The other thing is about Trump.
		And so people are going to be mobilized against Donald Trump.
		I've been doing a lot of focus groups.
		And people are just looking for any outlet right now to try to express themselves and the frustration that they have.
		You know, we're talking about people who are voting in off-year elections, and so they tend to be more highly engaged voters, a little bit more partisan.
		And so, they're talking a lot about things that they don't like about overreach, about Trump putting troops on the streets, about the one big beautiful bill, and these massive tax breaks for corporations and billionaires.
		Meanwhile, health care is getting cut and their insurance costs are going up, and nothing seems to be happening about costs.
		To my first point, so those are, I think, going to be the two biggest factors that are going to drive Democratic victories.
		The question is not whether or not I think Democrats win these races.
		I think the question is about coattails.
		So, like, can we pull the rest of the Democratic embattled Attorney General candidate, for example, in Virginia across the finish line?
		And what are the margins?
		Because if the margins aren't great, then Republicans are going to try to tell a story.
		And then, if they are better than expected, then Democrats are going to tell a story about this wave election.
		But these are both, you know, Democratic states are likely to.
		I don't have a question about whether or not Democrats will win those elections.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		We are going to be taking calls for our Republican pollster BJ Martino and Democratic pollster Nancy Zedunkowitz.
		If you have questions or comments about the shutdown or any of the other big public affairs issues here in Washington, our phone lines for Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		For Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		For Independents, 202-748-8002.
		Before we get to calls, I want to play some ads from that New Jersey governor's race in particular.
		The first is going to be from Democratic Representative Mikey Sherrill, followed by Republican candidate Jack Chitterelli.
unidentified		The Navy taught me in a crisis, you either find a way or make one.
		For Governor, Navy helicopter pilot Mikey Sherrill.
		As a 20% utility rate hike crushes New Jersey families.
		Day one is Governor.
mikie sherrill ▲ ● ▼		I'm declaring a state of emergency on utility costs, using emergency powers to end these rate hikes and drive down your bills.
unidentified		Mikey Sherrill knows a cost crisis demands bold leadership.
mikie sherrill ▲ ● ▼		I'll stand up to anyone and everyone for New Jersey families.
unidentified		I'm Jack Chitterelli.
		New Jersey's been home to my family for more than 100 years.
		I love this state, but we need change.
jack ciattarelli ▲ ● ▼		Housing, taxes, and electricity bills are crushing the middle class.
unidentified		And while you were paying more for everything, Mikey Sherrill was tripling her net worth in Congress.
jack ciattarelli ▲ ● ▼		We need someone who's honest with a real plan, someone who gets it.
unidentified		As governor, I'll fight every day for people who work hard and play by the rules because that's what you deserve.
		Together, I know we could fix New Jersey.
		It's time.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now we've just heard some ads from New Jersey.
		Let's have a caller from New Jersey.
		Jerry is in Sewell, New Jersey, on our line for Democrats.
		I imagine you've already seen some of those ads, Jerry.
unidentified		Yes, I have.
		Thank you very much.
		This comment and question is for Nancy.
		I'm sorry I can't pronounce all that.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Zedankowitz.
unidentified		Yes.
		I'm a registered Democrat.
		Very disappointed in the Democrat Party.
		I am so upset with a lot of the stuff that they're doing.
		And I think the Democrats are relying heavily on the media to speak in their behalf.
		In other words, I think the way they kind of change the rhetoric for the Democrats to help them.
		The problem is for the Democrats right now, nobody believes the media anymore.
		I don't buy anything, including on Feedband, so I just don't buy it anymore.
		Now, I'm going to be voting for Chitterelli this time, and I think he will be better for me to see.
		The question I have is to Nancy.
		I heard the Democrat who voted, not Fedderman, but the woman who voted for the against the shutdown, she was on a show and she said she had other Democrats that will go along with her.
		I don't know what the delay is.
		I think that's the way it's going to turn out.
		That the Democrats are going to have to give in.
		That it's a matter of when.
		But I really am hard to the media and the way they portray the Democrats and make it sound like they're winning arguments.
		They are not.
		They are not.
		Democrats like myself are not buying all this stuff.
		And you can see the hostility and these posts.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Jerry, I want to give Nancy a chance to respond to some of your comments.
unidentified		Yeah, I think you share a frustration with the media that many voters share.
		I don't know that it's even necessarily a frustration with just the way that they portrayed Democrats.
		In fact, I would even say Democrats are upset about the way the media portrays Democrats.
		But I hear this all the time.
		People don't like the way that the media does their job.
		They feel like it's all spin.
		It's hard to make up your own opinion.
		You only hear information that is negative.
		And so I can understand why you would be frustrated with the media.
		I'm not quite sure exactly what the concern is in this case, especially when it comes to how they're portraying the shutdown.
		I will say that I have not noticed much coverage at all of the shutdown, except for perhaps when it comes to delays with flights because of staffing shortages, people not showing up, and not leading to fewer flights getting out.
		But it used to be that we would have all of this blanket coverage of the harm that's being done to people through shutdowns, and that certainly has not happened as much lately.
		And I think one of the big reasons why is because it feels as if the president is still doing a lot of things.
		There's always stuff in the news.
		It feels like he's going to the Middle East and then he's announcing some new tariff policy, and then there's still federal workers, ICE agents, and so on being moved across the country.
		So it doesn't really seem as if there is a shutdown.
		So maybe if it feels like the media is not extracting enough of a price from Democrats, it's because they just haven't been as able to tell the story of the shutdown.
		I also think that's just the nature of this fight is a little bit different given the terms that have been staked when it comes to health care costs.
		When it comes to John Fetterman, I think that he has certainly lost the affection of many Democratic voters.
		And a lot of polling shows that Democrats will punish other Democrats if they aren't willing to try to get a compromise through this shutdown on ensuring that people's health care and health insurance costs don't go up, which I'm sure is something that our caller would agree is a shame.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		It's interesting in terms of how Trump is doing related to the shutdown.
		There's a story in The Hill.
		Trump approval ticks up despite GOP shutdown blame.
		This was a survey from the Reuters Ipsos poll that his approval rate has actually gone up even in the midst of the shutdown.
		What do you think is behind that, BJ?
unidentified		I think it's the point that Nancy made earlier.
		Why isn't the media covering this as much?
		It's because when looked at clearly from the standard of who passed a bill to open the government and who is not taking the votes to open the government, it's a pretty clear story.
		Now, we can inject health care into this discussion as much as we want and try, Democrats can, to make that, take that advantage they have on that issue and inject it into the shutdown.
		But for many voters, this is a cut and dry story about one party who has passed a bill in the House to reopen the government, and Republicans in the Senate have done so, but they need Democratic votes to do it, and those Democrats have held fast.
		And you see it, the president's numbers, Nancy, point two.
		He isn't stopping.
		He's continuing to do the things and advance his agenda in the way that he wants to, including his trip overseas to go meet with the Chinese president.
		So that's all happening, and that's why you see the president's numbers holding fast.
		I'd say the caller from New Jersey is a great example of why that race is closer than a lot of Democrats want it to be right now, because there is voter, our voters who are upset with the way that the Democratic establishment in New Jersey has held power, has dealt with cost issues.
		And think about energy that we heard, health care, all of this is around costs.
		So when we think about anything, any issue that we're talking about, voters right now are really looking at it through the lens of how is this going to impact my bottom line.
		Clearly, the energy issue and electricity is part of that discussion in New Jersey.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Let's hear from Diane in Arkansas on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Diane.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I would like to remind both of the strategists that each individual owes $327,000 as a part of the debt.
		They are unin touch, both parties, with the real American people out here.
		I am sick of it.
		I am tired of seeing money go overseas.
		I am tired of seeing people talk about Medicaid cuts and everything else.
		When the money goes back to the state, it's going to be the state decision how to spend it.
		If you are vital and able to work and you are not on disability, cut you off of Medicaid.
		Get off of it.
		I am sick of it.
		I make $1,500 a month.
		I pay for my Medicare bill because you know why?
		I got $9,000 worth of equity.
		I am excluded.
		So you know what?
		If I need sheets or I need clothes, I go to the Goodwill.
		That's the real world out here, people.
		We're eating pork because we can't afford to eat nothing else.
		That's the real world.
		Y'all are not in the real world.
		Congressman, I don't want to see you get paid.
		I want you to pay for your own insurance.
		I don't want you to get meals every day.
		I don't want you to get a car.
		I want you to be in the real world.
		And y'all too, I don't, if you're on government salary, I don't see where we need y'all's job.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So both of them work for their own private companies, but the points that you're raising, Diane, are very well heard.
		I mean, we got some data backing up what you said just this week with the Consumer Price Index showing that inflation was up more than 3% over year over year, and that's after we've seen even more inflation in previous years.
		It was a milder inflation report than many expected, but these economic issues, BJ, that Diane was raising and the sense that the parties are out of touch with reality, she had some real anger there.
unidentified		You've seen that anger for several years now, and it is absolutely the case, and it is well taken.
		Thank you for her comments.
		We see so many economic statistics coming out.
		We see.
		But you see earnings from companies, and you see the stock market, and you see statistics about inflation.
		And sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad, but statistics don't pay the bills, I like to say.
		And folks like our caller, who are living the reality of their daily lives, it doesn't matter if you've had a good quarter, if your 401k is a little bit bigger.
		I have to pay for my food.
		I have to pay for my shelter.
		I have to pay for my health care today.
		And when you look at some of the other numbers and how folks are talking to us and polling about how they're feeling, they're still feeling very nervous economically.
		Her sentiments are exactly what a lot of voters are feeling right now.
		So there can be a great disconnect between the numbers we see when we see good jobs numbers or better jobs numbers or worse job numbers.
		Those statistics don't necessarily always translate into what the reality for a lot of voters are.
		And that reality right now is one in which folks are still digging out in terms of credit card debt and loss of savings over the pandemic.
		Yeah, there's a lot of issues out there.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And Nancy, do you feel like the Democratic Party is doing a good job at sort of meeting voters on this issue?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Because this came up, obviously, in the 2024 election as well.
unidentified		I think they're doing a better job.
		I think there's an opportunity to go even further.
		And certainly when we see what all elections are about, it becomes a choice.
		When we see how things evolve, you'll be able to have a contrast on what did Republicans promise and what did they deliver?
		And what are Democrats offering instead?
		And what you're going to notice is that your health insurance costs are going up because of the One Big Beautiful bill.
		You see that Trump's doing worse on all of the issues that he's, when you ask, do you approve or disapprove his job performance?
		He's doing the worst when it comes to costs.
		And that's because there's a lot of Republicans who feel like actually has not been focused enough on this issue.
		In fact, pretty significant majorities are saying that Donald Trump has not been focused enough on reducing costs, their number one issue.
		Now, the One Big Beautiful bill, it not only was going to raise your health insurance costs, but it also added to the deficit, to our caller's point.
		And it was all to give this massive tax cut to billionaires and to corporations.
		And so those are the real people that are sucking money out of the hands of the American taxpayer.
		It's the billionaires.
		It's these large corporations that hardly pay any taxes.
		And so one of the things that I find really interesting is when I test different policies and I see that there's basically universal support for something.
		And one of those things, because it's popular with Democrats, it's popular with independents, it's popular with Republicans, is repealing these corporate tax cuts to pay down the debt.
		It is incredibly popular.
		And that's exactly the opposite of what Trump and Republicans just did.
		They just added to the debt, increased your costs, all to pay their billionaires and their corporate donors through this massive tax cut.
		And I think that's going to be what we're talking about.
		We're going to be talking about, you know, what did they do when they were in power?
		Who did they get richer?
		What does your pocketbook look like?
		And what are we, Democrats, going to offer instead?
		Well, I think Republicans have a story to tell.
		The big, beautiful bill in terms of the term has probably taken on a lot of water.
		But there are a lot of good elements in the bill that Republicans need to be talking about going into next year.
		Seniors not paying taxes on their Social Security income.
		That's going to be important.
		Child care tax credits.
		The tax cuts that actually happened impacted a lot of hardworking families.
		It's part of the reason why we've seen over the past couple years the Republican Party becoming more the party of working class voters.
		The higher socioeconomic status voters becoming more Democratic.
		We have a different cleavage in our electorate, but Republicans have to continue to work to talk to those voters and remind them that despite what Nancy is saying, it may be gratifying to say we're going to soak the rich.
		It's not going to solve the problems.
		So you can't tax the wealthy as the only means to get ourselves out of the issues we have.
		But we can talk to those working class voters and still win them.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Mick is in Shawnee, Kansas, on our line for Democrats.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Mick.
unidentified		Hello.
		I'm wanting to make the point that I don't want the Democrats to bail out the Republicans.
		I want the tax subsidies to expire, just like I don't want the Supreme Court to get rid of the tariffs because I want Trump's voters to feel the full weight of Trump's policies.
		And also, as a 73-year-old white male, I actually wear two hats.
		One says, make lying wrong again.
		The other says, Gulf of Mexico.
		That way, anybody that sees me will know I'm one of the good ones.
sheriff joe arpaio ▲ ● ▼		But my more important point is that Nancy Pelosi managed to pass bills that would acquire 60 votes in the Senate, even when the Senate was 50-50.
unidentified		And so it's nothing to get a bill passed in the House, but to get the responsibility to get it passed to the Senate.
		Mike Johnson shirked his responsibility because he didn't attempt to get a bill that would pass in the Senate.
		And so I'd like Nancy's, Nancy, to try to press that point.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, Nancy.
unidentified		This shutdown certainly is different.
		I remember when I first started working in polling, and it's so interesting to see the different ways that voters have reacted to shutdowns.
		So they became less costly politically to the party that was in power.
		And also, this one's distinct because, as I mentioned, it does feel as if Trump is still doing things.
		But also, we are not just saying, well, it's not just Democrats saying, please pass a continuing resolution.
		Let's just continue to fund the government at the same levels.
		This time, Democrats are the ones who have demand.
		And in the past, it was Democrats saying, please pass this continuing resolution.
		And we are peeling off some Republicans to do it.
		And then there was a hardcore base of Republicans that were saying, nope, because we're going to use this as leverage to extract painful cuts because we want to have less government funding.
		We want to, say, reduce the debt, that we want to reduce spending.
		In one case, it was about because we want to fund the border wall.
		And so those were the demands that Republicans were making, and it was Democrats who were saying, let's just pass a clean CR.
		And so the roles have reversed this time.
		And Democrats are saying, please restore these incredibly unpopular cuts.
		And it's Republicans who are now saying, you know, we must have this continuing resolution.
		So they're not really articulating this as well as they probably should because in the past, they've all voted against. continuing resolutions.
		So it's kind of funny to see them all of a sudden taking this sort of foreign position, it feels like.
		And so I was actually surprised to see that Democrats were doing so well in the shutdown fight just because it did seem like they were on the side that had often lost politically.
		Now it doesn't mean that it was actually going to cost them any votes when it comes election time, but just on the losing end of public opinion in the short term.
		And so we're not seeing that.
		I find it actually very interesting that this is so unique.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		BJ, the caller also was saying that, you know, all of these things should be allowed to happen to have voters feel the full impact of some of these changes that may be coming down the pipeline.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		There's a story here in Politico that 13 vulnerable Republicans are urging House Speaker Mike Johnson to immediately turn our focus to extending the Obamacare subsidies after the government reopens because some of them are really worried about this.
unidentified		I think there's certainly a willingness among some Republicans to have this conversation.
		You see that there are a lot of folks in red states and districts who depend on coverage in the individual market in order to have their health insurance.
		And so there are Republicans who want to address this.
		But to the point in that article, they say, let's get through the shutdown and let's close that first.
		We have this clean CR, as we call it.
		Let's get that done and then let's have this conversation.
		But I think the point with a lot of voters right now is that what do they take away from all this intrigue in Washington?
		And it's just dysfunction.
		Why are both parties' approval ratings so low right now?
		It's that largely independent voters by two to one dislike either party.
		Those folks who are out in most of America outside of the bubble of Washington aren't necessarily paying as close attention.
		They won't pay as close of attention unless or until the impacts, the policy that we're discussing actually has an impact in their actual lives.
		So to your point, they need to feel it before it starts to become real for them.
		And also, the election's a year away from the midterms.
		A lot is going to happen.
		There's going to be other things.
		But they need to feel some sort of impact of the shutdown before they're really going to feel strongly about it.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Let's hear from an independent voter.
		Mike is in Sydney, Montana, on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Mike.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimberly, BJ, and Nancy.
mike in alaska ▲ ● ▼		Nancy, your contempt for our elected president is misplaced within you.
unidentified		It's not his fault.
unidentified		We're in the situation that we're in right now.
mike in alaska ▲ ● ▼		By dynamics and a sliced up supply chain, along with a totally corrupt hill, has almost destroyed our country.
		Our beautiful, beautiful country is so toxic right now, and the fentanyl is killing our young people.
		And this shutdown is about giving $1.5 trillion to illegal invaders.
unidentified		That's a no-go.
		That's not going to happen.
		I'm a Montana contractor, and I work for government scientists.
		They're beautiful people.
		And they need to get back to work.
		But they have cut their projects in half.
		But I don't mind the slowdown if it happened.
		I'm willing to power through it.
		Because we need a worldwide purge of loafers and lazy people.
		And we also need to control our spending.
mike in alaska ▲ ● ▼		I mean, if we had $100 billion that Gavin Newsom spent and Jerry Brown on the high-speed rail to nowhere, we haven't even put in one mile.
mike in alaska ▲ ● ▼		We've condemned and practiced domain on 1,000 farmers.
unidentified		It's still in limbo.
		Not one mile built.
		We've got $100 billion, they say.
mike in alaska ▲ ● ▼		You could double that because the government never gives you the right numbers.
unidentified		But, you know, Hillary Care Obamacare for $7 million, that's another no-go.
unidentified		That's ludicrous.
mike in alaska ▲ ● ▼		If you want health care, why not the whole country?
unidentified		I mean, Doge exposed masks.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Mike, you've raised quite a few points there.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I want to give Nancy a chance to respond.
unidentified		Sure.
		I think he's saying something that BJ mentioned before, that both sides are telling stories that they think about this shutdown that are going to play to their advantage.
		And so some Republicans are saying that actually what Democrats are asking for is for health care to go to people who are undocumented in this country.
		I think that has been thoroughly debunked.
		But I can understand where the sentiment comes from.
		It's the same sentiment that was expressed earlier about I don't want money that could be going to help me and reduce our costs to be going to people who are in other countries.
		I often hear in focus groups, let's start here, is what people say.
		I also just want to say I'm sorry that the shutdown is impacting the collar and can understand how stressful that must be, especially now with really high costs.
		And so I just want to express my sympathies for him and hopefully the shutdown ends soon and in a way that actually doesn't lead everyone's health insurance costs to go up.
		And I think he brought up one of the good points too in terms of let's look back at some of the root causes.
		Why are we talking about these subsidies for the ACA premiums or these tax credits, however you want to define them?
		This is all part of the ACA.
		This is Obamacare that was passed that ultimately never really addressed cost.
		It was about increasing access, but it never got to the heart of health care costs in this country.
		And now, more than a decade later, we're seeing those issues really come home to Roost.
		And so I think that's part of what Republicans, you hear the discussion that they want to have is that let's pass the bill to overreopen the government, but then let's have a discussion about health care that's not only about helping those in the moment whose individual premiums are going to go up if they're on that market, but also how do we prevent that from continuing to happen?
		These subsidies can't go on and increase forever.
		It's like we see with universities where we give grants and fellowships.
		If something costs $100 and the government subsidizes it $30, next year that entity's, it's going to cost $130.
		Those costs go up in part because of the amount of money that the federal government is pumping in.
		We have to go back and address that root problem.
		And Republicans have said, let's do that after we open the government again.
		Can I just hop in right here?
		Because there were things that Democrats did do to try to contain costs and things like limiting how much you can pay for life-saving drugs.
		And those were rolled back by this administration.
		And so there are things that got actually at costs that weren't just about expanding access that have been undone by Republicans.
		And when you ask Republican lawmakers what they would like to do, because it's not like they don't have total control of the government, and it's not as if they didn't have total control of the government during Trump's first term for at least a couple years.
		And what did you do about health care then?
		In every case, it was actually taking away or making more costly insurance.
		It was giving more leverage to the people that are price gouging us for health insurance and for pharmaceutical drug costs and so on, and not actually doing anything that was going to make health care more affordable.
		And so I do think that there is opportunity for a much more robust debate because I think part of what BJ said was completely correct.
		Like, this is all bringing up again this idea of what are we going to do?
		Are we just going to keep trying to make it a little bit less expensive for you to get health insurance, which is still incredibly expensive?
		Especially for middle-class folks, this is one of the biggest costs that they play is their health insurance costs.
		And they're not even necessarily sick, right?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Quick response, BJ.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I want to get back to the callers.
unidentified		I'd say if Republicans had total control of the government, the government would be open right now.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Rodney is in Miami, Florida, on our line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Rodney.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I have a little bit different take on the discussion.
		One, I think the COVID opened up spending dramatically in the Biden.
		There's an op-ed that appeared in the Wall Street Journal in January of this year called the Great Biden Welfare Blowout.
		It talks about some facts that I think are pretty amazing.
		One of the facts is that almost 40% of the people in California are on Medicaid.
		That's one.
		Medicaid has grown since COVID larger than the Department of Defense.
		I don't know if people realize that.
		There are 10 million people that were added to the Medicaid roles in COVID that are still on there that we can't get them off.
		You want to say, oh, we're taking money away from poor people, but the Medicaid system has become an entitlement rather than simply there to help the poorest of the poor, the folks in the nursing homes, and that sort of thing.
		So, you know, I don't know how we can survive when the Democrats say we have to continue to spend money that we isolated for COVID when at some point we have to stop.
		And they're also saying that we have to fund PBS and NPR and do all these things before we even have a discussion.
gene in arkansas ▲ ● ▼		So, I mean, I think the COVID pared down of all the excessive spending is really what we're talking about.
unidentified		We need to get down, put people back to work, get people off Medicaid that do not deserve to be on Medicaid, and focus on the poorest of the poor and get the Medicaid to those people.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		VJ, I looked up that article Rodney was referencing there, the great Biden welfare blowout, and this argument that the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board was making back in January, was that the GOP can save huge sums by going back to pre-pandemic spending on Medicaid and SNAP, which is what Rodney was talking about there.
unidentified		Yeah, I think this speaks to a lot of the anger that you felt from a lot of voters over the last couple years, and it came to fruition really in the 2024 presidential election,
		which is that when we look at all the dollars that the federal government is spending in these programs and then ultimately seeing how much waste is going on in them and how many folks who are able-bodied and don't have dependents are taking advantage of this system without even looking for a job.
		When you see how many dollars are going to those who are here illegally, a lot of folks in the last election saw those who are here legally getting benefits, getting housing, getting health care, but at the same time feeling a lot of pain themselves and saying this needs to go to people who need it like myself or people that I know.
		That's the sort of anger that I think really bubbled up and helped drive some of the electoral results of 2024.
		And it's still here.
		And you saw some of Republicans taking steps again about requirements for Medicaid in terms of getting those work requirements where you have to be volunteering, you have to be looking for a job if you're able-bodied, have to be doing that.
		Those are popular measures.
		But again, Republicans have to be able to talk about those in the upcoming midterms and actually remind voters that those things are in their work.
		Those steps are being taken.
		But we can't get there unless we have the government open again.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Nancy.
unidentified		He's right.
		Work requirements and some of the things that Republicans have done with Medicaid actually do test well.
		The Medicaid cuts overall are not testing well, though.
		And a lot of the polling, it's one of the things that's on the least popular parts of the Republican agenda.
		My biggest caution is that there aren't that, is not going to be a really large chunk of the people who actually turn out to vote in a midterm electorate.
		And in fact, in some of the polling I've done, people who are in a household that is a Medicaid household are considerably more likely to be Republicans, and yet they're very supportive of some of these policies.
		And so I get a little bit worried about Democrats putting all of their eggs in one basket when it comes to Medicaid and talking about the One Big Beautiful Bill and what Republicans have done because there's way more people who are going to be impacted who are going to be voting in some of the districts that we most need to win in the upcoming election from some of the other parts of the One Big Beautiful bill.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Jim is in Sheffield Lake, Ohio on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Jim.
unidentified		Good morning, everyone.
		I would like to ask a question again.
		I've noticed over the last few years that Republican supporters are in denial.
		And what I mean by that is my brother-in-law is an athlete.
		Every time I say to him, did you hear what Donald Trump says?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Jim, it's a little hard to hear you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I just want to make sure that you're speaking directly into your phone so that we can hear you clearly.
unidentified		Can you hear me now?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		It's better.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
unidentified		Okay.
		Anyway, what I was trying to say is I think the Republican followers are in denial.
		My brother-in-law is a Trump supporter.
		Every time I ask him a question, did you hear what Donald Trump says?
		He goes, oh, no, he never said that.
		Oh, no, that's fake news.
		I think what the Democrats need to do is you need to run 3 to 32nd and saying, repeating, repeating all these things that Donald Trump said, about women, about war, about insulting other people.
		Remind, remind the voters of what Donald Trump is all about and continue to do that.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Nancy, I'd like to get your response to that because the Democrats did that in the 2024 election, and it didn't seem to matter to the people who turned out to vote for President Trump.
unidentified		Yeah, I think people know who Donald Trump is, and people are still willing to vote for him, or to hold their nose and vote for him, at least, because they were hoping that things were going to get a little bit better when it came to the economy.
		Or maybe they felt like the border was out of control, or maybe they felt like Democrats weren't focused on the right things.
		But they know who Donald Trump is.
		People know who Donald Trump is.
		He's not a very popular man.
		He's still, you know, his favorability has never been particularly high.
		It's, you know, basically always been that unfavorable in terms of his favorability rating.
		And yet, here we are.
		He's either more popular than the alternative, despite being incredibly unpopular, majority expressing unfavorable opinions of him, or it's just not important enough for his values to match theirs when they feel like he might help me a little bit more than the other guy.
		I want to say a couple things.
		First, to the Colin Ohio Go Browns, but when you look at President Trump, and exactly right, voters know who he is.
		And we have to remember that voters put President Trump into office in 2016 because he is and was then a disruptor.
		They wanted someone to go and break up the status quo.
		You see the anger towards the establishment that came from both sides of the party in the Tea Party movement on the right more than 10 years ago and the herbal Tea Party, as I'm calling it now this happening on the left.
		There is great anger at those, you've heard it from the callers today, towards those in Washington who they believe rightfully live in a bubble and don't understand the problems of people out in the rest of America.
		When I did focus groups back in the 2016 election, I was out in rural western Minnesota, which was at the time more Democratic area, and talking to voters about the election and who you're going to vote for.
		And a gentleman said, All I know is the status quo hasn't worked for me for 20 years.
		He might start World War III, but at least there'll be change.
		And heads in the room nodded at that time.
		And that's the sort of sentiment they wanted someone to come in.
		So despite where his job approval is right now, slightly upside down, according to the averages, this is what voters wanted.
		They desperately needed someone to hear that what has been going on, and the status quo hasn't been working for them.
		It's coming from both sides.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Gene is in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Gene.
unidentified		Yes, good afternoon, and God bless you.
		Real quick, it is not right now.
		We're voting on, we're not voting on the Medicare and Medicaid.
		That's mandatory spending.
		The spending they're voting on now is about 27%.
		It is only a continuation of the Biden budget.
		They've done it before.
		I'd like to talk about somebody that has some common sense, and that's Senator Fetterman, right here from the state of Pennsylvania.
		There is something that our Republican senators can do.
		We are calling them.
		It's called the nuclear option.
		If we don't do this now, Senator Federman said there will be Groundhog Day.
		Now.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, just for clarification, Gene, you're referencing the idea of killing the Senate filibuster is the nuclear option.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Is that what you mean, Gene?
unidentified		I don't know what people are seeing, but my Medicare Advantage plan went down.
		My drugs went down in the last few months.
		You do not clean up in a year the horrendous and lascivious financial and human degradation of our children that went on for four years before.
		So I say, God bless you.
		Use the common sense that the real king, our Lord Jesus Christ, gave you.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So we only have a few minutes left for our segment, but Nancy, why don't you go first?
unidentified		Wow.
unidentified		I think she was talking about the, well, specifically the filibuster.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, the idea of getting rid of the Senate filibuster and that they would, that she would be supportive of that idea.
unidentified		Yeah, so actually the filibuster is not particularly important.
		Getting rid of it, sorry, it's not particularly popular.
		Getting rid of it is something that a lot of voters are okay with.
		It's just another sort of institutional practice that has, for many voters, seemed as if it was standing in the way of progress.
		But typically we're talking about it as an impediment to doing things that voters really want to see done.
		And so not in this context specifically.
		And, you know, I think Republicans have typically been the ones who have been less interested in getting rid of the filibuster, at least in polling that has been the case.
		It would be interesting to see how things would change if this was framed as something that, say, Trump demanded be done.
		Would that move a lot of Republican voters?
		We do see that when policies are put forward and with time, the president is able to indicate to his followers that this is something that I'd like to see happen, that opinions do shift.
		So maybe things would move if that was something that he wanted to see done.
		But it doesn't change the fact that Republicans dramatically cut health care benefits and also are going to have health insurance rates increase because of their one big beautiful bill.
		And that that is something that's going to need to be addressed, whether or not they're able to have the nuclear option and get the government reopened or not.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		BJ, final thoughts?
unidentified		I think Republicans have always, at least in the Senate, been pretty clear-eyed in terms of, although there might be some short-term benefits to eliminating the filibuster, that long-term, you're not going to be in power forever and then that's going to be deployed against you.
		I think also when it comes to health care costs, we continue to have the argument and Republicans will continue to have the argument that, yes, there needs to be something that's done, but we can't just go along and get along and do what we've always done in the past, which is continue to throw these giant subsidies.
		It's not solving the root problem.
		So we need to have that argument.
		We want to have that discussion, but it's got to come after other things are done.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, thanks so much to our roundtable guests, BJ Martino, President and CEO of the Terrence Group, and Nancy Zdankowicz, who is the founder of Z2A Research.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thank you both so much.
unidentified		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right, coming up next after the break, we're going to talk with the Brookings Institutions, Patricia Kim, about President Trump's trip to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, APEC, as well as his scheduled meeting with China Xi Jinping.
unidentified		We'll be right back.
		Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold new original series.
		Today 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 Rubinstein.
david rubenstein ▲ ● ▼		And what do you hope most people will take away from your book?
justice amy coney barrett ▲ ● ▼		I think what I want them to take away from the book is that they should be proud of the court.
justice amy coney barrett ▲ ● ▼		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 today at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		The book is called Breakneck, China's Quest to Engineer the Future.
		Author Dan Wong was born in China in 1992.
		His parents moved to Canada when he was seven.
		In 2014, he graduated from the University of Rochester in New York.
		Then in 2018, Dan Wong went to live in China until he returned to the U.S. in 2023.
		He then went to the offices of the Yale Law School and wrote about his comparison of China and the United States.
		He writes in his intro, quote, a strain of materialism, often crass, runs through both countries, sometimes producing variations of successful entrepreneurs, sometimes creating displays of extraordinary tastelessness, but overall contributing to a spirit of vigorous competition.
unidentified		Author Dan Wong with his book, Breakneck, China's Quest to Engineer the Future, on this episode of BookNotes 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.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back.
		We're joined now by Patricia Kim, who is the China Center and Asia Policy Center Fellow at the Brookings Institution, here to make us update, give us all the updates on President Trump's travels to Asia.
		Thank you so much for joining us at Washington Journal.
unidentified		It's a pleasure to be here, Kimbler.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So one of the reasons for President Trump's trip is he's set to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum this week.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What is APEC and how important is it to the United States?
unidentified		Well, APEC is a regional bloc.
		It's an economic bloc that includes many countries in Asia, but also countries as far as South America.
		And it's an important economic counterpart to the United States because many of the United States' key economic partners from those in Northeast Asia to Southeast Asia are involved.
		And so the APEC Summit will be taking place in South Korea.
		And so this is where President Trump is going to have high-stakes meetings with President Xi of China.
		He will also be meeting with South Korean President President Lee Jamyong.
		But he's also in a broader tour throughout the region.
		He's in Malaysia right now.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Actually, I'll bring up his itinerary so we can sort of go through where he's going to be.
		Today, as you mentioned, in Malaysia, meeting with the Prime Minister there.
		On Monday, the President will travel to Tokyo, meeting with the new Japanese Prime Minister on Tuesday.
		On Wednesday, he'll be in South Korea, meeting with the President there, as well as on Thursday, where he's going to have that meeting that's scheduled with the Chinese president on the sidelines.
		That's a pretty packed schedule.
		Like, why this itinerary?
		Why now?
unidentified		Well, this is President Trump's first swing through the region since taking office in January.
		And clearly for this White House, the focus is on securing trade deals.
		So since the president has landed in Malaysia, there have been announcements of trade deals with Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
		There have been announcements about critical minerals partnerships with some of these countries, which the United States sees as an important thing for diversifying away from reliance on rare earth minerals that largely come from China or the Chinese supply chain.
		And of course, there's also a focus on peace deals with the president having presided over a peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand that were locked in a deadly conflict this summer, a border dispute.
		And so he's presided over an extended ceasefire agreement.
		And I think there's also hope that he may be able to reach out or he may be able to meet with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, who the president has also been very keen to strike or to restart diplomacy with to work towards peace on the Korean Peninsula.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, that's a really good roundup of sort of what the United States is looking for out of this trip.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think the various Asian countries represented there are hoping to get from President Trump on the swing?
unidentified		Well, for Southeast Asian countries, let's start there first.
		I think they see the United States as an important economic market, as an important economic partner, and also a vital counterweight to China.
		So many of these countries count China as their largest trade partner, as a very important investor.
		But they also have, many of these countries also have outstanding territorial disputes with China, and they don't want to live in a neighborhood that is dominated by China.
		So they see it as important to keep the United States invested and involved in the region.
		And so this trip offers them an opportunity to shore up relations with the United States and especially to have good personal relations with the President given how important of an element a personal dynamic seem to be for this administration.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Everyone's going to be watching for the personal dynamics between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at this meeting.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		How important is that meeting and what are you expecting to come out of it?
unidentified		Yes, so that is probably the most watched part of this itinerary where President Trump will be sitting down for the first time in person with President Xi Jinping since taking office for the second time.
		And of course there's a lot of interest in will there be an extension of a trade truce and sort of a ramping down of escalations between the United States and China when it comes to trade because after China announced expanded export controls on rare earths, there was big concerns that this would bring global trade to a standstill.
		And President Trump, of course, threatened to impose another 100% of tariffs on China.
		And so there will be a lot of attention on will the two sides extend a trade truce.
		There have been some preliminary announcements by U.S. and Chinese negotiators who have been meeting in Malaysia over the last two days that the two countries are likely to extend the truce and that they'll be discussing also agricultural purchases, the TikTok deal, fentanyl as well.
		And so there will be a focus on trade really in this meeting between President Trump and President Xi.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Trade policy has been such a key feature of the U.S. relationship with China, especially in this current Trump administration.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Can you just give us a state of play of where things stand right there?
unidentified		Well, absolutely.
		So trade has indeed been the focus.
		And that's also been a point of criticism because trade sort of takes up all the energy, you wonder, well, will President Trump be talking about other important issues with Xi?
		For instance, we could be talking about China's support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
		We could be talking about China's support for North Korea as it continues its nuclear expansion.
		But there's not much room in sort of bilateral engagements because all of the attention is on trade.
		But coming back to trade, there's long been a view in the United States, and especially in this administration, that the economic relationship between China and the United States is lopsided, that we buy much more from China than they buy from us, and that this is unsustainable, that this has hollowed out American industries, American jobs, and so that this needs to be corrected.
		So that's been a focus of this administration, but also the previous administration as well.
		And so that's where things are.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned earlier that there's a possibility of President Trump meeting with Kim Jong-un very famously in his first administration.
		He was in communication, stepped over the line, and all of those things.
		What's different this time around?
unidentified		Well, there's a significant difference this time around in that North Korea is in a much stronger position because it has a mutual defense pact now with Russia because the two countries, these two isolated countries, have found a need for each other where North Korea is providing its troops to Russia so that it can continue its war against Ukraine.
		And in return, it is receiving military technology, economic aid, and other assistance from Russia.
		And so North Korea is feeling a lot less isolated.
		At the same time, China is competing with Russia for influence over North Korea.
		And ever since Kim Jong-un attended the military parade that China hosted in early September, we've seen a spike in economic activity between China and North Korea.
		So North Korea is a lot less isolated.
		It's in a much stronger position than before.
		It is now demanding that the United States, if the United States wants to talk, if Trump wants to talk, that it needs to set aside the issue of denuclearization.
		It's saying that its nuclear weapons are off the table, but anything else we can talk about.
		Now, of course, that's, you know, the nuclear weapons are the issue.
		And so that's the position that North Korea has taken.
		It's seen less likely that the two leaders will meet because the North Korean foreign minister is actually going to Russia over the weekend and she would be a key person to coordinate any sort of meeting between Trump and Kim.
		But in any case, that's North Korea's position today.
		And so it'll be important to watch, you know, will Trump compromise on the U.S. long-standing policy that North Korea must give up its nuclear weapons?
		We hope not, but those are some of the concerns that exist around what does the strengthened North Korean position do for it.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned earlier about the peace agreement or the extended ceasefire agreement that was signed between Thailand and Cambodia.
		Another big security issue that could be coming up is Taiwan.
		To what extent do you think that is going to be a topic of discussion and where do things stand there?
unidentified		Yes, so there are concerns that, you know, will Taiwan be on the negotiating table between the United States and China.
		And the reason why there are such concerns is because President Trump has, you know, compared to his predecessors, spoken more in a more lukewarm manner about the U.S.-Taiwan relationship.
		He has characterized Taiwan as an economic competitor to the United States rather than a vital democratic partner in the region.
		And so there are concerns that, you know, if China pushed him, would he make concessions on Taiwan?
		And earlier this year, the Taiwanese president was denied a transit through New York City.
		There was also a cancellation of a planned meeting between defense officials between the United States and Taiwan.
		And these were largely seen as concessions to make China happy, to pave the way for a U.S.-China trade deal.
		And that's of course very dangerous because if you don't want to convey the sense that the United States-Taiwan policy, that its relationship with Taiwan is negotiable.
		And that would be bad for deterrence, not just in the Taiwan Strait, but also send all the wrong signals to U.S. allies around the world who depend on the United States' commitment for their security.
		And so there is concern there.
		I think Secretary Rubio has come out to say that Taiwan is not on the agenda.
		It's not going to be discussed, but we'll have to watch and see how the Trump Xi meeting goes.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		This administration has made a lot of efforts, and the Biden administration as well, to move a lot of semiconductor chip manufacturing to the United States, which is one of the reasons that Taiwan is so important to the United States.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		How do you think that changing dynamic is going to affect U.S.-Taiwan relationships as well as this ongoing sort of standoff with China over this issue?
unidentified		Well, you know, with chip manufacturing, I think there is a realization that the United States has to have its own capabilities to produce these vital industrial components.
		And actually, Taiwan has been a big part of the push to help reindustrialize the United States to bring back chip manufacturing capabilities to the United States.
		And so in that sense, it's actually a vital partner.
		I don't think Taiwan's role as a critical node in this chip supply chain is going to disappear anytime soon.
		But with the United States, you know, there has been this effort to, again, sort of bring back supply chains, not just on chips, but on many critical inputs to the United States.
		There was this realization, especially during the pandemic, that we had grown too dependent on other countries, and especially China, for everything from mass to what have you.
		And so there was this push to reindustrialize and to make sure that we diversify and that we're not too reliant on Chinese supply chains.
		That is an ongoing effort.
		That is part of a lot of the trade deals that are being struck around the world, for instance, with South Korea and Japan, which have both committed very large amounts of investments into the United States to help the U.S. with reindustrializing.
		And so we'll have to see how those actually play out, but there is an effort underway to make the U.S. more resilient.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned Japan.
		That's another stop on the trip.
		Japan has a new prime minister, the first woman prime minister of Japan ever.
unidentified		What do you see ahead for that trade relationship?
		Well, for Prime Minister Takaichi, who just literally became Prime Minister a few days ago, her priority will be establishing a good relationship with President Trump.
		Because for Japan, the United States is a vital security partner, treaty ally.
		And it really, the concern is that President Trump is known to be an alliance skeptic.
		He tends to see allies as burdens rather than assets for the United States.
		And so Japan and other allies like South Korea are in a position to have to demonstrate to the United States that they actually bring a lot to the table.
		And so we've seen the Prime Minister announce just in the last 24 hours, I believe, that Japan will be accelerating its timeline to boost its defense spending up to 2% of GDP by two years.
		So it's going to go faster than its commitment by two years.
		It has also talked about making sure that the trade deal that has been struck between the United States and Japan goes forward, is sustainable for both sides.
		And so that's what the new prime minister will have to juggle as she manages this relationship with the United States.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		If you all have questions for Patricia Kim of the Brookings Institution, you can call in Republicans at 202-748-8001, Democrats at 202-748-8000, and Independents at 202-748-8002.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Before we get to those calls, let's listen to some of the comments that President Trump made earlier today at that ceremony where Thailand and Cambodia signed that expanded ceasefire agreement.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Today, alongside this peace treaty, we also are signing a major trade deal with Cambodia and a very important critical minerals agreement with Thailand.
		The United States will have a robust commerce and cooperation, transactions, lots of them, with both nations as long as they live in peace.
		And I really feel that when we make deals, we see two countries that we do a lot of business with.
		We do a lot of business with both of them.
		We have to use that business to make sure they don't get into wars.
		But this is going to be a very long peace.
		So as you know, this is one of eight wars that my administration has ended in just eight months.
		We're averaging one a month.
		There's only one left.
		Although I heard that Pakistan and Afghanistan have started up, but I'll get that soft very quickly.
		I know them both, and Pakistan, the field marshal and the prime minister are great people, and I have no doubt we're going to get that done quickly.
		That one started up a few days ago.
		And I just feel it's something I can do.
		I do it nicely.
		I don't need to do it, I guess.
		But if I can take time and save millions of lives, that's really a great thing.
		I can't think of anything better to do.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right, now we'll take your questions for Patricia Kim of the Brookings Institution.
		We'll start with John in Mechanicsville, New York on our line for independence.
		Good morning, John.
unidentified		All right, Kim, thanks for taking my call.
		Quick question for Patricia.
		I honestly don't think, excuse me, I honestly don't think that there's going to be any real meaningful progress when Trump meets Xi Jinping.
		And the reason I say that is because, you know, while the United States is establishing, I guess the word is hegemony in the Western Hemisphere, China wants to do it in the Pacific Rim region.
		I mean, you saw it during World War II, Japan trying to do it.
		And I think that's China's goal.
		I mean, and you're seeing military camps being established right now with China, Russia, and South Korea, as Ms. Kim said.
		And the United States is courting Australia, Japan, and South Korea, and possibly India that had a conflict with China, I think, back in 1965.
		China is an authoritarian government.
		They have a totally different style of government that we had and has a totally different mindset.
		And they're determined that they're going to surpass the United States and be the world's leading superpower.
		And also, there's a question that I have with its Belt and Road Initiative, China.
		How, over the past five, six decades, when China was emerging as an industrial power, how is it that the United States let China gain possession of a vast majority of rare earth minerals that we need today?
		And that's certainly these corporate corporatists that have moved everything that China now sourced it, they knew what was happening.
		How did the United States allow China to gain Ownership of all these is so vital.
		I'd appreciate an answer.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thanks, John.
		So a couple of issues there.
		The idea of regional hegemony and China versus the United States there, the success of the Belt and Road Initiative globally, and also how it is that the United States sort of stepped back while China kind of cornered the market on rare earths globally.
unidentified		Great.
		Well, John, thank you for your comments and your questions.
		Starting first on sort of your doubts that the U.S. and China are likely to strike a trade deal, maybe I will offer first.
		I think Beijing doesn't have high hopes that a trade deal with the United States will actually fundamentally reset the U.S.-China relationship.
		I think both Washington and Beijing understand that they are probably locked in decades of strategic rivalry and competition, and that's going to stay.
		Having said that, I do think Beijing ultimately wants a trade deal with the United States because signing one would, first of all, lower tariffs, which are at a high rate right now.
		It would inject a measure of stability in the U.S.-China relationship, which they see as a good thing.
		And it would keep President Trump invested in the U.S.-China relationship.
		And that's a good thing for China because it would restrain the more hawkish voices within the administration or on Capitol Hill who want to take more hardline economic measures or other measures against China.
		And so, in essence, a trade deal would buy China time and space to advance its long-term goals of being more technologically self-sufficient and having leadership in industries of the future, which it sees as its path to prevailing in a strategic competition with the United States.
		And that goes to how did China become dominant in rare earths or other strategic industries?
		I mean, China is, as you say, a one-party state.
		It's an authoritarian country.
		It has the ability to sort of lay out these long-term plans and really sort of focus all of the industries on it.
		And so rare earths is one of the areas where Chinese leaders decided that this was a strategic input that China needed to have dominance in.
		And they went and actually made that happen.
		And so China actually just wrapped up its plenum where it sort of mapped out the next five years of its economic plans.
		And in those plans, again, are sort of our sort of priorities of doubling down on strategic industries, technologies, industries of the future.
		I'm sure rare earths is a part of that.
		And so this is very much a country that moves strategically.
		And I think that that gets to the question of how China was able to have dominance in the rare earths arena.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Kevin is in Washington, D.C. on our line for Democrats.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Kevin.
unidentified		Hello.
		Two things that Trump is really good at is ending wars and suing people.
		I wonder if he'll bring up the COVID.
		Maybe we can finance the ACA by holding China accountable for its role in the most catastrophic pandemic of our time, COVID-19.
		And this was covered by Heritage, where Director Radcliffe, this was back in July last, in 2024.
		He said that we know a lot of stuff we can't talk about, but now that he's in charge of the CIA, they can talk about it.
		Maybe they could have like a dedicated fund that China pays into for leaking COVID and not alerting the world.
		I think the head of the other person that spoke at that talk at the Inheritance Foundation was Robert Redfield.
		She has a book coming out beginning of November.
		It's called Redfield's Warning, saying we need to cooperate internationally to control the threat that biotech with the AI is causing to the world.
		So I appreciate if you showed that Brookings, not Brookings Thunderworld Heritage Talks.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So we're going to probably not be able to play that talk today, but Patricia, you want to respond to some of those comments that Kevin made?
unidentified		Sure.
		I think I have not heard anything about this administration, at least this time around, bringing up the COVID-19 pandemic and accountability for China on that issue.
		But I do think that the focus really is on striking a trade deal with China that would rebalance the U.S.-China economic relationship.
		I think President Trump is actually, rather than penalizing China, is more interested in perhaps investment deals with China that would bring Chinese money into the United States.
		That hasn't really been discussed fully, but there are differing views within the administration of how we should be approaching China.
		There are some in the administration who believe that we need to diversify away from China, that economic interdependence is not good.
		Whereas I think the president himself would be keen to have a similar deal that he struck with other countries like South Korea and Japan, where there are big investment numbers of Chinese money into the United States, big deals on agricultural purchases, perhaps plane purchases.
		I think that's where sort of the president's head is, not so much on sort of the pandemic or other issues like that.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Dave is in Hale, Michigan on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Dave.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Patricia, I've got a question for you just to spark my interest.
		Putin and Xi, would they happen to be any kind of in cooperation or anything with what's going on in Ukraine through the shipping ports of Ukraine?
		I know that Putin wants it, and maybe Xi has got this kind of the same mutual idea that maybe it works in their favor as a pass-through way of cheap mineral concerns that's on its way maybe through there.
		Maybe that's what Donald Trump wants to talk about.
tom homan ▲ ● ▼		I'll take my answer off the air if you want to kind of bring us to light on that.
unidentified		Thank you.
		Sure.
		I'm happy to talk about the Putin and Xi relationship.
		I mean, there is a very strong bromance between these two leaders.
		We've seen actually China and Russia's strategic ties deepen over the last decade plus since Xi Jinping came to power.
		I think it's very clear that Beijing sees Russia as a vital strategic partner and counterweight to the United States.
		At one point it was talking about Russia as the no-limits partner of China.
		And so China has really stepped up to maintain trade ties with Russia so that it's less isolated after its invasion of Ukraine.
		Even as the U.S. has put pressure on China not to help Russia out in the last three years since the war has been going on, China sort of has held its ground.
		I think it wants to make sure that it does not alienate Putin because again, Putin is seen as a vital partner by Xi Jinping to work with, to align with against the United States.
		John is in Sykesville, Maryland, on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
unidentified		Can you hear me all right?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Yes, we can hear you.
joe cardinale ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, just I'm wondering how all the trade with consideration for debt to GDP with China and I guess the rest of the world for that matter in general.
joe cardinale ▲ ● ▼		Scott Besson has always put the focus on the debt to GDP and if we can create more jobs, which I believe makes sense in my mind, that Trump is focusing on job creation and creating a productive economy because I don't think we can tax our way out of, you can't tax your way to prosperity.
unidentified		And we've gotten too grown used to just spending as we see fit.
		So times of austerity are coming.
		I don't care what anybody thinks, but that's just the way it makes sense to me.
		If you spend more than you make, you're not going to last very long.
		So we need to do business with China.
		We need to do business with the rest of the world and do as much of it as possible.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
unidentified		Thank you.
		Yeah, I think, John, you're right.
		I think there is a focus on bringing foreign investment into the United States because that's one way that you boost the United States job market, that you reindustrialize the United States.
		So as I mentioned before, some of the biggest trade deals that the U.S. has with its allies and partners include a $550 billion investment deal with Japan and a $350 investment deal with South Korea.
		And those involve these countries, these allies of the United States, investing in critical industries in the United States.
		Now, of course, what's important is that the details of those deals have still to be fully hammered out.
		And for those deals to be sustainable, they'll need to be mutually beneficial, both to the United States, but also to the people of Japan and South Korea.
		So those are issues that the U.S. and its counterparts are working on.
		And I imagine that's the type of deal that the administration might welcome with China as well.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Alan is in Arkansas on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Alan.
unidentified		Yeah, hi.
		Good morning, Patricia and everybody on a Sunday morning.
		I am so glad to see you on.
		You remind me, Patricia, of a couple of things.
		As a kid, 70 years ago, I remember the Protestant denomination I grew up attending church with.
		We had a Christmas offering every Christmas called the Lottie Moon Christmas offering for China.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So we're almost out of time for this segment, Alan.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Did you have a question about the president's trip through Asia or trade policy?
unidentified		Well, yeah, I just wanted to know how that relates to her.
unidentified		I know Brookings is more of a left-leaning group, but I wanted to know how she sees America's help in China's policy toward open Christian opportunity and worship.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I guess that's a bit of a policy question in terms of China's treatment of various religious groups.
unidentified		So human rights issues, religious freedom have always been important topics that the United States has traditionally pursued in conversations with Chinese counterparts.
		I'm not sure how much of a focus it has been for this administration, at least up to now, given how much trade has taken up the oxygen in the U.S.-China relationship.
		But, you know, human rights issues, again, people-to-people ties, those have also been very important elements of the U.S.-China relationship going back decades.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Richard is in Rockville, Maryland, on our line for Democrats.
unidentified		Good morning, Richard.
		Good morning.
		I recall that not so very long ago, there was concern about the United States being spun up in the Middle East and Ukraine and other issues that China might think was a good time to strike at Taiwan.
		And there were increased military activities in the Taiwan Strait accordingly.
		And I'm just wondering, do you see this trade agreement or negotiations, discussions as having set that concern back a little bit so that you're not quite so fearful of an immediate attack on Taiwan?
		Yeah, that's a great question, Richard.
		Thank you.
		I think, you know, as you mentioned, in the Taiwan Strait, we've really seen a ramp up of Chinese military pressure and coercion vis-a-vis Taiwan.
		We've seen a dramatic transformation, actually, of Chinese military capabilities.
		And so it's a concern.
		It's a concern on whether China will try to coerce Taiwan into some sort of negotiated or on some sort of settlement of the cross-strait differences.
		Of course, U.S. policy, long-standing policy on Taiwan is that we do not support a violent change or a unilateral change to the status quo, that any cross-strait differences should be resolved peacefully.
		You know, I think when the U.S. and China have a more stable relationship, perhaps it does provide opportunities for the two sides to talk candidly about these issues.
		And so it could help with questions surrounding Taiwan as well.
		Well, thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		That's all the time that we have with Patricia Kim, who is the China Center and Asia Policy Center Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thank you so much for sharing your expertise.
unidentified		Sure.
unidentified		Thank you, Kimberly.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, we're going to wrap up today's show with Open Forum, and you can start calling in now.
		Our phone lines for Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		For Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		And for Independents, 202-748-8002.
		We'll be right back.
unidentified		Media mogul and studio executive Barry Diller will be our guest tonight on C-SPAN's Q&A.
		In his memoir, Who Knew? Mr. Diller speaks about his career in Hollywood and his longtime relationship with fashion designer Dion von Furstenberg.
		He is also responsible for creating the movie of the week and television miniseries, including Brutes.
barry diller ▲ ● ▼		For 11 nights, 100 million people watched Roots and almost the entire U.S. population.
		And that's binding.
		Values get inculcated there.
		All sorts of shared experience takes place.
unidentified		Barry Diller with his memoir, Who Knew, tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q&A and all our podcasts on our free C-SPAN Now app.
		Weekends brings you Book TV, featuring leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books.
		Here's a look of what's coming up this weekend.
		We visit Chicago for the Printers Row Litfest, where authors gather to discuss parenting, Harriet Tubman, the future of democracy, and more.
		Then it's America's Book Club from the Great Hall of the Library of Congress.
		Master of the Legal Thriller John Grisham joins host David Rubinstein to discuss the author's early life, writing process, latest novel, and his work with wrongfully convicted prisoners.
		Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Kevin Sack, with his book Mother Emmanuel, talks about the long history of the African Methodist Episcopal Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, including the 2015 shooting that killed the church's then pastor and eight parishioners.
		Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, Eric Trump, with his book Under Siege, talks about growing up as a Trump and his family's involvement in business and politics.
		Watch book TV every weekend on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org.
		Washington Journal continues.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back.
		We're in open forum, ready to take your calls on public affairs and other issues of the day.
		We'll start with Scott in Los Angeles, California on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Scott.
unidentified		Hello to everybody.
		You know, when Bob Marley would give a concert, he would invariably say, it is so good and pleasant for brothers and sisters to be here together in one entity, which is unity, and that's Washington Journal.
		Now, the first thing I need to say is thank you guys so much for your programming.
		The other day, and it's only you guys who would do this for me, I see Kash Patel.
		He's got a little bit to say about these NBA players.
		And I just found it fascinating, the greed involved.
		And I was hoping they would show the rest of the press conference, you know, on the usual suspect stations.
		And they didn't.
		So I surfed over to the C-SPAN, the mighty C-SPAN networks, and I went back and forth on the three stations.
		And it was not long.
		Bingo, the entire press conference.
		Thank you guys so much.
		Kimberly, I need to say you just do a fantastic job.
		The reason I'm calling, once again, is about Epstein and that whole situation.
		I called four months ago.
		I used these airwaves.
		I implored reporters, please get into this story.
		There's so much there.
		And I would just, the main reason I'm calling today, I want people to know a couple of very key things about this.
		They go underreported, and they need to know this.
		Now, in 2007, Epstein was interviewed, asked a lot of questions.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Scott, I want to make sure that we can get to some other folks.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Do you want to make a final point?
unidentified		Very quickly, the last point, and thank you for this, Kim.
		Donald Trump, when he was asked about Maxine, he said, I really wish her well.
		I wish her well.
		And I want to ask your audience, if that was an illegal alien involved in her activities, would Donald Trump be wishing that person well?
		Thank you so much.
		God bless.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Charlie is in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Charlie.
unidentified		Hey, my wife needs prayers.
		She's fighting for her life in Memphis with a Libertarian Square.
		She's June the 8th.
		And I want everybody to pray for her and lead her back.
		She's think of her if you can in your hearts.
		She's called a heroic guy.
		She's an amazing person.
		And I just.
		What's your wife's name, Charlie?
		Brenda Manning is her name.
		She's a wonderful, wonderful person.
		And I just need her back.
		I mean, I want everybody to pray for her.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Wishing her good health, Charlie.
		Harry is in Bel Air, Maryland on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Harry.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimberly.
		My concern has always been that when you have these Democratic pollsters on, that they're never very effective.
		They're always like spouting all these atmospherics, but nothing concrete in terms of proposals or things that need to get done.
		And no one ever talks about how the Republicans are going to go ahead and use recession to go ahead and take the money away from anything that they agree to when Congress opens up again.
		That's my comment.
		Okay.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Barbara in Midwest City, Oklahoma on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Barbara.
unidentified		Hi.
		I just, I get so sick of every day, three hours of Trump lies on here.
		I don't understand.
		I remember when Biden got in, the first thing he did was fix the border.
		So the border, he never let millions in the border.
		And now, C-SPAN, you're saying that.
		You're saying that for the truth.
		I hear y'all do that every day.
		That's not the truth.
		He fixed the border.
		That's the first thing he did.
		And it needed fixing.
		Trump broke it.
		It was broken when he got in.
		And yeah, four months he sat with our senator and both of them came out of there smiling from ear to ear and were thankful to have this.
		They had an agreement and everything fixed on the border.
		And remember, Trump said no, don't sign.
		Why don't y'all get that through to people?
		Why do you let the lies come through and then you repeat them?
		I don't get that.
		Biden fixed the border.
		He gave us so many jobs.
		It's insane.
		And everything that we're not going to have any peace with Trump.
		Gaza doesn't have peace and there's no peace in Gaza.
		That's a big fat lie.
		And y'all keep saying there is.
		There is not.
		They're killing people every day.
		If people are dying there, that's not peaceful.
		I'm sorry.
		But all he can do is put Biden down.
		And that's all y'all can do now.
		And that's wrong.
		Biden brought, I have been alive 80 years.
		Every single Democrat president has been handed a busted economy.
		Reagan handed over a busted economy.
		Bush handed over a busted economy.
		We fixed it.
		How did all these lies get told about who's the best on the economy?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I think we've got your idea, Barbara.
		Steve is in Finksburg, Maryland on our line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Steve.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I wanted to go back to the Dem strategist.
		She said Trump has never been popular.
		Do you think that might be because 98% of the news coverage on him is negative?
		It's hard to be popular with coverage like that.
		The other thing is, does anybody remember the biggest story of the year?
		And it was just three, four months ago.
		Everybody in the country was going to starve to death because eggs were $6 a dozen.
		I just paid $1.50 for a dozen eggs.
		Have you seen that on the news?
		Probably not.
		Do you remember when Trump put the tariffs in and the stock market crashed and we lost $13 trillion off the stock market?
		Stock market's at record highs.
		Have you seen that on the news?
		I mean, the media is a joke.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Samuel and Ben-Salem, Pennsylvania on our line for Democrats.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Samuel.
unidentified		Good morning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I'm all right, Samuel.
		I want to make sure that we can hear you clearly.
		One more time.
unidentified		I say good morning.
		How are you doing?
		I'm sorry.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I'm doing well.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead.
unidentified		All right.
		I have two questions.
		I understand that we're behind in the tech wars, but why are we not worried about educating our kids here in America so we could catch up in the tech wars?
		And I'm kind of confused.
		I saw a soundbite about President Trump saying that he got eight wars.
		I'm confused about that.
		Like, what eight wars did he stop?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So those echo comments, so our guest has already left for the day, but those echo comments that he has made previously before the United Nations about various conflicts that the president takes credit for resolving.
		Next up is Don in New Orleans, Louisiana on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Don.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		Actuaries and fiduciaries.
		Actuaries assess the risk and everything from life insurance, health insurance, auto insurance, all the insurances, and they make mathematical models to issue the sustainability of those programs.
		And they serve governments, federal, state, and local governments in all areas of our life.
		Fiduciaries are responsible for looking out for the interests of their beneficiaries or even the constituents and public fiduciaries, the president, governors, to look out for the betterment of the people, not their own personal gains.
		And the issue with the great wealth transfer that's been proposed for the next two decades, $124 trillion, that circles back to the discriminatory practices of redlining and the GI Bill, which discriminated, which promoted the education and homeownership of mainly white males.
		And so today we had the Supreme Court contemplating doing away with the Section 2 of the Voter Rights Act of 1965, which coupled the voter rights, the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, and the Federal Housing Act of 1968.
		We forget, we think that the political gerrymandering, which is self-dealing, it has to do, well, if it's political, it's all right.
		No, political has to do with the economic ramifications, as the great wealth transfer indicates that 10% of the $124 trillion, the top 10%, will have the lion's share of that $124 trillion transfer.
		So we have to, when we separate, when we talk about race, creed, color, all of this tie in a capitalistic society to economics.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Andres is in Gatesmill, Ohio, on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Andres.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for C-SPAN.
		And I haven't been on here for a few months, but I thought I'd remind everyone that this past election, the Republicans received something like 72 million votes, and the Democrats like a million and a half votes less.
		That is so far away from a mandate that it's just ridiculous.
		It's almost as ridiculous as our current president claiming solving eight wars in his mind, maybe, but that's it.
		Okay, great.
		How is the ceasefire in Gaza going?
		Anybody hear anything new there?
		I watch Israeli TV all the time.
		They're still killing people there.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
unidentified		That's all I have to say for today.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Garland is in Decatur, Georgia, on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Garland.
unidentified		Good morning.
		First thing I like to say is politicians, especially Republicans, feel they have no obligation to tell the American people the truth.
		No obligation to tell us the truth.
		And another thing, Republicans got the House, they got the Senate, they got the presidency, they got the court, and they can open up the government if they wanted to.
		I was surprised that their Democratic strategists didn't know how they could open up.
		They can open it up when they get ready.
		And the last thing we got to understand, when you talked about insurance earlier, and capitalism profits Trump's, no pun intended, the betterment of the human family.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Ron is in Johnston, Pennsylvania, on our line for Democrats.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Ron.
unidentified		Good morning.
		The greatest, I'll tell you what, George Washington said it best: beware of a president who seeks revenge.
		And the greatest enemy of the truth is not the lie.
		It's the people who believe the lie, especially about this, he's stopping eight wars.
		I really can't believe people believe that.
		If you do, you're the greatest enemy of the truth.
		And by the way, the immigration thing, there was a bill passed by the Senate under Biden, but it was shot down by the House.
		It would have provided 1,500 Border Patrol agents and more judges.
		And again, that was under the Biden administration.
		And you talk about waste, fraud, and abuse.
		This ballroom they're building is a total joke.
		That's a shame.
		Well, people are going to be hurting for Medicaid and Medicare problems.
		He builds a ballroom for $200, now it's $300 million.
		Unbelievable.
		And the best economy, according to Moody's Analytic, was under Biden.
		For the last 35 years, he had the best economy.
		So those are the things to really digest.
		Thank you for your call.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Next up is Steve in Tampa, Florida on our line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Steve.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimberly.
		My suggestion is: I have a plan to reopen the government in exchange for a one-year subsidy of $3,000.
		Hello?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Yes, I can hear you, Steve.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Please go ahead.
unidentified		In exchange for a one-year, $3,000 subsidy for all eligible ACA members, that the government be immediately opened.
		This would allow the government to spend the next year trying to resolve the problem on the Unaffordable Care Act, which has never been affordable.
		I think this is the only way to get the government open.
		I think the Republicans did not start the shutdown.
		It was caused by the Democrats.
		All right.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		A couple of folks have referenced some of the president's comments that we played earlier, where he repeated his claim about the eight wars that he has ended.
		This is also something he said previously.
		And when he said it the first time, there was this write-up in Axios.
		Here are the eight wars Trump says he deserves a Nobel Prize for ending.
		And this was before today's comments.
		But the specific conflicts that he was referencing, the Gaza war in particular, but some of the conflicts that Trump claims that he resolved date back to his first term and, as the AP reports, did not involve actual live wars.
		But if you scroll down, some of those, Israel and Gaza, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand, and then referencing his first term, Egypt and Ethiopia, Serbia and Kosovo, and those are the conflicts that were being referenced there.
		Mike is in Stockton, California, and is on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Mike.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yes, I'd like to go back to the fact that May was saying about the ruination that the Republicans caused.
		I think ever since Clinton, actually, Reagan did that when he opened the borders and signed that bill or whatever that Mexicans can say they're white on an application.
		I thought that was just egregious.
		That's the most racist thing I ever heard of.
		And then all the different things that the Republicans have complained about, they did it.
		Republicans did it.
		They ruined their country.
		Trump is going to be the president that breaks America.
		Just like a kid breaking a toy, he cared, just wait till next year.
		Let me see how many Republicans call and brag about him.
		And they make an excuse.
		Everything he does, they have an excuse for it.
		I don't want people coming from ass-hole countries.
		And then you say, oh, you're black.
		That's your president.
		Out of his own mouth, he lets you know he don't want to be the president of people of color.
		He called everybody a name.
		Everybody's a bad word to him, except for white.
		Just like they said, they're not arresting any white immigrant, illegal immigrants.
		They're all people of color.
		Everything he does is against people of color.
		And that's all I wanted to say this time.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Philip is in Oxenhill, Maryland, on our line for Democrats.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Philip.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		I would just like to say, let us all pray for America.
		I like to ask one question that I do not understand.
		With all the turmoil that's going on in this country, we got the military and it's taking over the cities.
		We got the government shut down, all these different problems, and our president is going on a trip somewhere, like a vacation.
		I don't get it.
		Somebody please help me.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Scott is in Pennsylvania on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Scott.
unidentified		Thank you so much.
		I would like to read something to the American people and you.
		Proclamation.
		Revolution is your duty.
		Leo's and courts are hereby placed on notice.
		You will respect our constitutionally protected rights.
		Unwarranted force will be met with equal force.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		We don't call for force here.
		Let's do Richard in Missouri on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Richard.
unidentified		Good morning.
		This deal about Trump, you know, killing them people on them boats down there.
		He said, well, it's just murder and that's what we've got to get rid of, you know.
		Now, I don't know if you ever read the Ten Commandments, but thou shall not kill.
		I just wonder if it's justified killing them people in their boats if we just look around here and say, well, the easiest way to get rid of these rugs we don't want here will just kill them.
		You know, this deal about drugs, that's just a big foldy deal.
		We worked to Afghanistan and topped the poppy fields.
		They always got an excuse to go to Venezuela to get these drugs.
		The worst drug there is we got here in the United States is actually alcohol.
		It kills more people than other drugs.
		So it's a sad state of affairs we got.
		So hope we can get something straightened out one of these days.
		I'm sorry for your troubles.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		The story that Richard is referencing is on the front page of the New York Times today, openly killing suspected smugglers closed mouth on law.
		Since he returned to office nine months ago, President Trump has sought to expand executive power across numerous fronts, but his claim that he can lawfully order the military to summarily kill people accused of smuggling drugs on boats off the coast of South America stands apart.
		A broad range of specialists and laws governing the use of lethal force have called Mr. Trump's orders to the military patently illegal.
		They say premeditated extrajudicial killings have been murders, regardless of whether the 43 people blown apart, burned alive, or drowned in 10 strikes so far were indeed running drugs.
		Mary is in Richland, Washington on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Mary.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I just wanted to, I don't know, everybody says they read and they listen to different things, but I don't know if they knew that in Boise, Idaho, they're letting Qatar, I think that's where he got the plane from, build an Air Force base.
		And also, Singapore is supposed to put one in the United States.
		I didn't think that was, I thought that was against the law to have foreign troops or people like that.
		The other thing I wanted to say is I'm really upset about him destroying our house.
		That's not the White House.
		That's the people's house.
		And I wish people would take a look at him because they always talk about Mr. Biden, President Biden, getting dementia or whatever.
		But he just seems like he's just losing it.
		And I don't want to say anything bad about anybody, but I just pray for our country.
		And don't forget to vote.
		It's the second week.
		I think it's the 11th of November.
		Don't forget to vote the first or second Tuesday of November.
		Thank you.
		God bless you, and God bless America.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And we're going to end the show there.
		Thanks to everybody who called in for this edition of Washington Journal.
		Coming up tomorrow morning at 7 a.m., we will have another edition of the show.
		But you can tune in next to Ceasefire.
		We're going to have that coming up right now.
dasha burns ▲ ● ▼		Welcome to Ceasefire, where we seek to bridge the divide in American politics.

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