need it. we have a number in our district here in the state of georgia. they are here to help in just that situation there. we want to help people. we understand there are unwanted pregnancies and that is why we have programs and centers designed to serve those people and help those people. i would submit to you that there are programs out there people are night using that would help them. washington journal continues. host: joining us here is jim himes of connecticut who serves on the select intelligence community and financial services. good morning. we will pick it up where we left with what he carter on the issue of inflation. i asked him how republicans

would handle rising inflation. how do you think of the inflation reduction act will work in reducing inflation in the country. guest: let's be clear -- it will work in the longer run . the center of that bell was about reducing prescription drug cost -- bill was about reducing prescription drug costs. that was a victory. it will reduce the out-of-pocket costs for seniors. the cap is $2000 a year. that is going to be a powerful thing for senior citizens. it is not kicking in tomorrow. it is not kicking in next week. it will have the effect of alleviating pressure for seniors. host: would you say inflation is the number one topic in your

town halls? guest: inflation is out there. it is serious. there are signs it is moderating. we are dealing with a global phenomenon. our inflation is a lot lower than it is in the united kingdom. hopefully, it will moderate over time. host: buddy carter and others say " the problem starts with all of the spending that has happened under the democratic congress." guest: it is not true. the united kingdom has higher inflation then we do. japan has a high inflation. the u.k. is run by their conservative party. is it their fault? is buddy 100% wrong? no.

we did a lot of spending to keep people from starving to death. did we in the face of a 100 year storm get it precisely right? we can debate that. libby not. --may be not. to say it is the democrats' fault is precisely what it looks like -- an election-year statement that does not have a lot of root in reality. host: what is the job left undone by this congress in terms of the economy and helping out the american worker? guest: the speaker asked me to chair a select committee on economic disparity. right now inflation, whatever you think of government spending, there will not be anymore pandemic relief. that is in the hands of the

federal reserve. the federal reserve's job -- that is in the hands of the federal reserve. the federal reserve is in charge of reducing inflation. your question is a super interesting one. if you are really honest about what the american people need, let me throw a couple of ideas out there -- housing. you cannot pay rent! try renting a house in san francisco, chicago, boston, or even austin. better training and apprenticeships. our educational system in this country is designed for the 20th, maybe even the 19th century. we live in a world where -- you are men american with skills, they will do amazing things -- you arm an american with skills,

they will do amazing things. host: apartment -- guest: the clear answer to that question is the federal government has enriched onset both for the construction of 2 million affordable units, and enormously successful program that has created affordable housing all over the country. we need to put that housing near transit hubs, so maybe someone does not need a car to get to their job because they are lower income. my republican friends are rightly concerned by the burdens of regulation. nimby-ism is preventing the building of affordable housing. we can incentivize it.

part of this is education. if you show people what affordable housing looks like today, it is really additive to our communities. using incentives to get communities to do more inclusionary zoning can move the needle. host: congressman jim himes is with us. we welcome your questions and comments. (202) 748-8000 is the line for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. and for all others, i. -- and for all others, (202) 748-8002. you mentioned the federal reserve will be meeting soon and probably raise interest rates another three quarters of a percent. is that about the right amount or do they need to be more proactive? guest: my answer is never ever

listen to a member of congress about where interest rates are going! if i knew that i would be making more money right now. having seen the inflation numbers moderate a little bit, but not a lot, i think the federal reserve will continue to raise rates in an effort to stamp out that inflation. host: what is your view on -- obviously the stock market is in a really difficult place. in terms of the mood of the country when they see the stock market like that, you have been in the investment world. what is your reaction to that? guest: number one, members of congress are not in the business of giving investment advice. the stock market is a risky

place. when you get a situation like we have had for the last 12 years or so and the market only moves in one direction, people get complacent. what is important is a minority of americans are invested in the stock market, because a minority of americans can afford to invest in the stock market. i look at the job numbers. we have startlingly high employment numbers. the fact that we have been adding jobs every month, that is what makes a difference for people in america. we all like it better when the stock market is rising, but it is a fairly small number of americans who are exposed to the stock market. host: on the select intelligence committee, your view of the doj investigations, the two investigations, the one into the

mar-a-lago documents that were seized, and two into the former president's actions prior to january 6. guest: that resulted in his impeachment in the house of representatives. -- that resulted in his impeachment in the house of representatives. he urged on the violent attackers at the capitol on january 6. it was not just the president. it was rudy giuliani, sidney powell, john eastman -- there was a whole cabal of people around the president who made a serious plan, involving serious lawyers, not saying serious things, but to try and stop the peaceful transition of power in this country.

i sit on the intelligence committee, so every day i take my watch off, i take my phone out of my pocket. when i look at classified information, it has the markings that all of america got to see all of america got to see. s out of that -- if i take those documents out of the sicf, -- scif, i will get in trouble. the idea that there was highly sensitive documents sitting on a carpet -- that is absolutely mind blowing. host: the former president told hugh hewitt he ahad -- he has absolute right to declassify arguments. guest: your viewers can decide

whether trump is a paragon of truth like george washington, but his lawyers are not making that argument. there is no doubt in my mind, given that his lawyers are not making that argument, that, that probably did not happen, host: we go to new jersey, carol is on the democrats' line. caller: my first comment is we need to be very careful about electing business people. that is the reason why most people have not gotten a brazen 40 years. i am a union person. i am definitely for training. i was a recipient in the 60's. i went into a company. the way it was set up, another employee trained me.

i made a third of what they made, and then after a year and a half, i was bumped up to their salary. now the way companies do it, you have to go through a county college in order to learn the same skills but it was less better during that time because you are on the job, learning from someone who knew the job, and with hands-on experience. it was a much better way of learning. today people cannot afford the funding to go to college, so i do not understand why companies do not take on apprenticeship programs. guest: great observation from carol. . she is right people -- she is right. people think about labor unions negotiating for pay raises. unions are training young

people for the jobs they need. electrical workers run apprenticeship programs where they take people from connecticut, and teach them how to wire commercial buildings. very dangerous work, and it is wonderful. carol also mentioned community colleges. they are doing heroic work, training people to be nurses, training people who may have lost a job in an industry that shot down to do data entry -- shut down to do data entry. host: bill is calling from north carolina on the republican line. guest: -- caller: i'm calling in reference to president trump.

they are investigating people like trump. i think one of your colleagues, eric swalwell, wasn't he supposedly sleeping with a chinese spy? i do not hear anything about an investigation into this gentleman. he is still on the investigation community. i was in the military for 22 years. i am a republican, but i try to be fair when making decisions. you got hillary clinton who destroys her laptop, things like back. she did not have the privilege of declassify -- like that. she did not have the privilege of declassify and information. if you are going to do things, do it fairly. i would like to see an investigation on eric swalwell .

host: congressman himes? guest: let me say two things to fill. he makes -- to bill. he makes the classic " what about" argument. as a parent, you dismiss it out of hand. when one of my daughters come to me and says " i had me," it is not ok because -- "i hit her because she hit me," it is not ok. we should not get into the business of saying " terrible behavior is ok, because other people do it too." lady justice has a blindfold on. it should not matter who is doing it. hillary clinton's use of emails

during the trump administration was investigated by a director of the fbi who was a republican, and the investigation, the conclusion of the fbi's investigation was that there was no chargeable crime there. the director of the fbi at the time says it was irresponsible behavior. if in america the defense that works for you is " the other folks do it too," we are done. host:, here is lee in trenton, new jersey on the independent line. caller: good morning. my comment is about housing. in new jersey, there is a program called the mountain laurel program. every development that goes up in new jersey has to be for low and moderate income people.

i have one too. i do not know if you have it in your state, and connecticut but -- in connecticut, but i think it is a great program. when you own your home instead of renting, you have a lot more -- do you think it can go nationwide to get bowl homes they can own? -- get people homes they can own? guest: i am familiar with the mountain laurel decision. it was an important decision in the 80's that required communities in new jersey to build more affordable housing. the question was do we have that in connecticut? every city has a slightly different program. connecticut has something called 830g.

it is a law that says if a town does not have enough affordable housing, a developer can override zoning rules. that creates a lot of controversy, particularly in a place like connecticut where towns have a lot of authority. that creates a lot of controversy. what i would like to point to is there are a lot of cities doing good work. new york, in particular, gives developers additional rights. a developers can build more unit so long as they builds -- more units so long as they build more affordable units. this comes back to the notion, if you go back to new york, and you look at those developments that include more affordable housing, they are beautiful. the reason i keep saying that is

because people have this notion that affordable housing is a 10 story brick structure. there has been a lot of success with projects along the lines of mountain laurel, where developers are encouraged to build portable housing. host: you sit on the financial services committee. you introduced legislation this summer -- " himes proposes central bank cryptocurrency." what would this do? guest: anyone who has been watching bitcoin has noticed that anyone -- people have made a lot of money on bitcoin and lost it.

the important thing to remember about wayne and cryptocurrencies is -- bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is that they are not what you used to buy your coffee down at the wawa. it is a massively risky investment. to get your question, a lot of countries are looking at the idea of a digital currency that is backed by the government. instead of being bitcoin, which is backed by nobody, you would have a digital presentation of a dollar. this isn't exotic. people are using apple pay today . that is an example of electronic currency. this would be backed like the dollar bill in my pocket. the theory is that would give people more confidence, particularly at a time when all

of these cryptocurrencies have been hugely volatile, would give them more confidence that it is a stable store of value. there is certainly not consensus the. there is a good -- consensus though. there is an argument, should the government do it or should the private sector do it? it does not have to be either or. we have dollar bills that are guaranteed by the government, and credit cards that are not guaranteed by the government. there is a lot of support, but there is not agreement we should move forward with a central bank guaranteed to currency. host: our next caller is on the independent line. caller: the budget is going -- are you guys going to be able to pass a budget on time this year, and if not, why? the comment i have to make is

you told a gentleman earlier using the analogy of kids that if another person does something -- the man is not a child, and yesterday legitimate question, and it is a legitimate gripe. people are doing things they should not be doing, and getting away with it. that is not a child asking why another child has to do it and they do not. he is a concern voter, and he would like to have an answer to that question. if you are not going to reprimand guys were not doing right, then who will do it? guest: i am going to stand by what i said, which is that we cannot decide that it is ok for donald trump to do something because hillary clinton did it too. it is not ok for joe biden to do

something just because donald trump does it. if that is the way we start thinking, we will start killing each other because the other guy did it. to the question, hillary clinton's use of a private email server was fully investigated by the fbi. he raised the swalwell example. that allegedly happened well before swalwell was a member of congress. whatever entity has those facts look at it to see if there was anything chargeable. people need to be held accountable. hillary clinton was investigated for using a private server. hillary clinton went through 9 hearings on the whole benghazi thing. donald trump, because his son invited the russians to give dirt to their campaign, he got investigated. it is not accurate to say hillary clinton got away with murder. both were investigated for

allegedly wrongdoing. the budget is due on september 30. the question is will we pass something that avoids a government shutdown. it may be a continuing resolution, but there is not a risk of a shutdown. host: has the budgeting process gotten better over? guest: it has never been easy. course, the federal budget is approaching $4 trillion. it is a staggering number. where i would tell you it really failed was when we had government shutdowns. some senator just decides " i do not want this budget, so i went to the federal government to shut down." stop the federal government from doing what it does, doing national weather reports through the national weather service,

you name it and it erodes people's confidence in the reliability of the federal government. we are not going that path this week. host: let's hear from helen on the democrats line in virginia. caller: talking about the economy and inflation, my husband died in july, and talking about social security they want to go by my age to find out his benefits, which will cut $400 a month out of his check. i will not be able to draw on my social security. my husband worked 50 years. he was retirement age, and i do not see why they can change the law when you are over the age of 60. they do not go by your husband's age so they are going by my age. that $400 a month -- they get

to keep my social security. host: we will hear from the congressman. social -- our social security questions one of the most common questions you that i can your office -- get back in your office? guest: they are. helen, i am sorry for the loss of your husband. i want to be a little careful, everyone's situation is a little different. to your broader question, as ellen articulated -- helen articulated, social security is critical for americans. we did not see inflation for a period of many years. we got to work very hard to

protect it. rick scott, the senator from florida -- he is the chairman of the republican senatorial committee -- rick scott said let's d authorized social security every 5 years and reauthorize it in the congress. host: in other words they would have to start from scratch? guest: congress would have to come together and say " we like this program." even though an and norma's amount has been accomplished sometimes -- the fact that they senatorial republicans floated the idea that we de-authorize social security every 5 years stopped my heart. i that helen would agree with me, de-authorizing it and putting it at risk is a terrible idea. host:

announcer: next discussion about republican and democratic strategies this election season. as parties battle for control of the house and senate. it was hosted by the dole institute of politics at the university of kansas. this is one hour and 15 minutes. providers giving you have read receipt to democracy. next a discussion about republican and democratic strategies this election season. as parties battle for control of the house and senate. it was at the dull institute of politics at the university of kansas this is one hour 15 minutes.