♪ host: it's monday, may 19, 2025 in the house returns at noon eastern, the senate meets at 3 p.m. and we are with you for the next three hours. we begin with yesterday's announcement that the president joe biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. the announcements at the 82-year-old former president was diagnosed on friday and that the

cancer spells -- cells had spread to his bones. this morning we are getting your reaction to that news on phone lines here in the eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8000, mountain and pacific, (202) 748-8001. you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003, include your name and where you're from. otherwise, catch up with us on social media and ask. very good monday morning to you. start calling in now. the news coming in yesterday afternoon about the former president's health diagnosis. this was the statement from his rsonal office in its entirety. last week

that was the statement yesterday afternoon, that diagnosis coming on friday. "the washington post" today with more information on prostate cancer in the incidents of prostate cancer around the world. it was the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in fifth leading cause of cancer-related death in the united states according to the national cancer initute. that's according to 2020 data published in the journal frontiers of public health with 1,440,000 new cases locally, 300 75,000 deaths, the most frequently diagnosed cancer in 112 countries in the leading

cause of cancer death in 48 countries. that was in today's "washington post" rack up -- wrap up. plenty of statements coming in, including from the current president. donald trump, "milani you and i are saddened to hear about joe biden's recent medical diagnosis and extend our warmest and best wishes to jill in the family and we wish him a fast and successful recovery." statements from the previous democratic president, barack obama, saying "michelle and i are thinking of the entire biden family. nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all of its forms than joe and i am certain he will fight this with his trademark resolve and grace and we pray for a fast recovery." statements from members of congress as well , we will get to those

throughout this first segment of "the washington journal." we want to hear from you in your reaction to that news from yesterday. we start with california, annie, good morning. caller: good morning, john, my favorite one of them, and i just want to say that i think joe biden, he did several things, including appointing a native american to be secretary of the interior. i just applaud that. i feel like the wounds of this country, and i have set it before, it's like we won't move forward in any way if we don't look at what we have done. it was not maybe the current people who did it, but i feel like that is so important and i

applaud joe biden for doing that . i'm very sorry to hear that he is going through what sounds like a very painful time. i hope that people honor him for the things that he has done that are good like that. thank you. host: harold is in tennessee. good, you are next. caller: yes, sir, thank you for taking my call. i want to say the president biden, blessing, hope he has a speedy recovery. with people on cnn talking about his mind, but when people will stop and look, please look at what he's done that's dear to his presidency. with the social security raises, the man has done a good job. it's awful what they are doing to that man. he devoted his life to this country. he's not a crazy man. thank you for taking the call.

host: the book that i assume you are talking about, "original sin," the cover up, the decline, and the disastrous choice to run again, by age 8 -- by jake tapper. from the front page of "the washington post," a wrap up about the joe biden health news issues, saying that the news comes at an extraordinary moment for biden and the party democrats who have been second-guessing their handling of the 2024 elections, especially his insistence on running for reelection until his stumbling debate performance forced him from th race. we are getting your reaction to the news about his diagnosis. this is james in new york. good morning, james. caller: it's me? host: that's you.

caller: ok, good morning. 78-year-old vietnam vet. i was just diagnosed four weeks ago with a nodule on my prostate. the problem is, and i guess the same thing happened with president joe biden, who i like a lot, the problem is they stopped doing the backdoor test about six years ago. up until six years ago, i was getting the backdoor test, which for anybody that doesn't know, that's the finger in the rectum. host: gotcha. caller: they stopped doing that six years ago and were just doing the blood test. men like that, it was belittling, but it was necessary, especially now.

i've got an mri this friday coming. i wish joe a speedy recovery. i'm praying on my own self. i'm not overanxious, because i live in prayer. it takes 10 seconds. it's uncomfortable, but you get over with it. host: lake charles, louisiana, good morning. caller: good morning, mr. mcardle. i find this a strange story, frankly. i can't remember, i'm a middle-aged woman, i can't remember a single modern president who has been diagnosed

with stage iv cancer. they are receiving the ceo plus benefits package. a doctor travels with them. a prostate diagnosis in a man of his age is very easy to come by before it gets to stage iv. host: what are you saying, that this should have been diagnosed sooner? caller: i question if it's a real diagnosis. is this the same doctor that he -- told us that he was fit as a fiddle and sharp as a tack? these things are unbelievable. i can't leave the continuous lying. i really can't. host: what would be the reason for lying about this? caller: i don't know, three books came out and you had two of those authors on your program? you had chris whipple.

and then there's another one coming out from two more liars. i don't know why these books weren't written when those of us with articulating brain cells could see that there was something wrong with joe biden neurodegenerative lee back in 2018 if not before, frankly. but that's as far back as i can really remember seeing it myself. 2018? that's a long time. they kept telling us that he was fine. the people that wrote the books also lied. so, i guess this is the furtherance of the cover-up. it's never the crime, it's the cover-up. i can't think of a single modern president who has gone to stage iv cancer of -- or cancer of any kind. they have an in-house doctor. my god -- host: got your point. this is guy, saint augustine, florida, good morning.

caller: i happen to be a bit older than president biden. i want to qualify that last caller, that gentleman. i just had a prostate exam less than two months ago. they are using both procedures. all of my doctors have always used what he would like to call the backdoor procedure, not just a blood test. they are both currently used. furthermore, i just believe that nobody in government should be in that position, whether it is the president or anybody in the, in-service for our country over the age of 70. pilots are required to quit file -- quit flying at 65 for good

reason. it's a very stressful job. host: you don't think we should have a president over the age of 70? caller: no, i think it's ridiculous. the same for supreme court. there's a reason to die in service to your country. 70 should be the cut off. most corporations also do this. so, it's not, it's not unusual. you know, you have got a high-pressure job, it's the same thing why the faa requires quitting before the age of 60. you are in a pressure cooker all the time. the bottom line is, we should put new laws in effect. you have to be a certain age to run and there should be a maximum age of cut off for running. host: that is guy in saint augustine, florida. another former president a statement yesterday, bill

clinton -- he writes just one of the many statements coming in yesterday in the wake of this diagnosis. see if it's -- steve scalise on capitol hill, "praying for joe biden as he battles prostate cancer." marjorie taylor greene, often a critic of joe biden when he was in office, saying that i'm sorry to see this news, cancer is awful, my father passed away in 2021 of cancer, prayers for joe biden and his family. statements coming in. yesterday in the wake of that diagnosis, it was made on friday, with an announcement from his personal office coming yesterday afternoon. jim grant, forks, north dakota, good morning. caller: john, are you reading

me? host: three you loud and clear. caller: how are you, buddy? yes, i'm no fan of joe biden, politically, but my father had prostate cancer. the one good thing, i'm not a doctor, but i am playing one on tv right now, from what i found out from my dad, he passed away from something else a couple of years ago at 94, he got it late in life, his late 70's. it grows slower when you are older. it's all about testosterone. some people might not know that. there were different ways they could deal with it. they seeded it with these radioactive little things. then it shrinks it. he had all kinds of problems that went along with it, having to be catheterized. the pain that he went through, he defeated it after a year, completely defeated it totally. he went on to live another 15

years. biden has gone pretty far here. like the one person said, how did they get to this moment? i keep an eye on it. i get up a lot at night and go to the bathroom. i had better watch it myself. but also, it is interesting, this is a political show. it's a good chance to make a statement here. there's a lot about breast cancer in female health needs. we hear about women's health all the time. women's health. never men's health. that's the way the society is. we are female oriented. we like to take care of women and worry about women, but we don't really take host: care of our men. host:saying something like this brings more attention to it? caller: yeah, a girl got mad at me once when i asked them this, they have breast cancer walks and parades. men put on pink shirts and follow behind their wives.

pink ribbons everywhere. i even see trucks painted pink in north dakota. a cement truck for breast cancer awareness, swear to god. it's ridiculous. more men die of prostate cancer then women die of breast cancer. but the truth is, you won't see women marching for us. they would not put on a blue-ribbon if we had organizations for that. host: if you didn't know, march was designated prostate cancer awareness month and there are several campaigns out there about prostate cancer. you can google them yourself, look them up. caller: that's good. one more thing. please. also, we should be, we talk about african-american men's health. african-american men get this really higher than white men or asian men. but it's not because of socioeconomic or can't get to a doctor, it's because of testosterone levels again. blacks have higher testosterone

rates than whites and asians. host: all right. that's jim in north dakota. yvonne, good morning. caller: good morning. first thing i would like to say, i'm sending prayers for joe biden. my heart goes out to the family. truly couldn't stand his politics. however, i came across a video just this morning where joe biden, back in 2022, was speaking about something in the water something out there in delaware that was causing a lot of men to get cancer. he actually said me and others. my question is, i wonder if he has had it since 2022. of course the obvious reason for the cover-up was the reelection.

like they covered up everything else. personally, i don't see how anybody can go overnight, you know, checkup last week, when he has had the best doctors in the world in the white house. i believe that the family has known. i believe it was another cover up just like the cover up just like the cover-up with his cognitive issues. i believe the reason they would leak this information now is because of the information that came out with the tapes released on the book showing how bad his memory was, with him not remembering his son dying or even being vice president, taking the light off of that, this information about him being sick, to get him sympathy and not the backlash of lying and covering up to the american

people. that's all i have to say. host: the tapes that you are referring to, i'm assuming, are the recordings of the former presidential interviews with special counsel robert hurt, held over two sessions in october of 2023. they were released, the transcripts were released last year, the whole interview end the tapes of that interview, axios published them and they are several hours long, and in them you can hear joe biden struggling to find the right words in dates when recounting various details, including the time of his son's death, notably, that's what has made many of the headlines. you can listen to those tapes at the axios website, axios.com. this is michael in elmhurst. 10 minutes left for this discussion. we will move to open for a

minute about 10 minutes. michael, go ahead. caller: good morning. i want to point out that a president getting advanced cancer is very rare. only two presidents have died of cancer. u.s. grant and grover cleveland. that's over 140 years ago. it's very rare. i kind of think that this certainly takes a lot of pressure off of the democrats, you know? it's going to be hard to attack biden now with this so-called stage four. host: where do you go for presidents who have died of cancer? caller: you google it. it's common. there have been a couple of skin cancers, reagan, lyndon johnson, they had skin cancers. but to get this far when you have around-the-clock care, to

get to stage iv, that's unheard of. that's a failure of the medical system around the president. host: that's michael in elmhurst, illinois. sue, baltimore, good morning. caller: it can be a bit of a rude awakening. the first two calls i heard this morning were speculating about a cover-up. i just want to say that as a christian, one of the commandments is not to bear false witness. seems like that's a lot of what television is. can't blame callers too much, that's what a lot of bankers on a lot of new shows do. but particularly this kind of negative speculation. the last caller made a more valid point, that this could be a failure on the part of the presidential medical team.

it is a good opportunity for us as americans to discuss our medical system and the types of care and the quality of care that people receive, it is way under par. this is for the average american. it is surprising that a wealthy and or powerful person who receives this type of, failure to adequately screen, apparently . this is happening to so many people. so many are suffering because of poor medical care, under diagnosis, misdiagnosis, mists and missed. it's an opportunity for americans to reach out to each other and care about each other's suffering. to stop being so combated and cool to each other. to look at some of these institutions that have the power

that are making so much out of the medical system and say why are we being failed. my prayers go out to everyone suffering and injured for not receiving adequate care, medically or socially. that is my comment this morning. host: sue, baltimore. you mentioned several callers brought up the plenty of coverage of out joe biden and his medical conditions for years and ideas about whether they were covered up. getting attention, specifically, in a book coming out from jake tapper and alex thompson, "original sin, the biden decline , cover-up, and his disastrous choice to run again." jake tapper was interviewing james clyburn on the cnn "state" yesterday. this was in the morning before the news from the biden office

about cancer came out. the discussion surrounded the idea of a cover-up around the joe biden medical condition, leading into the 2024 election. this is about 1.5 minutes. [video clip] >> you think that your party low standing in the polling, -- do you think it has anything to do with the impression that many people in your party, especially in the white house and biden and his family and his inner circle hid his actual dysfunction, his nonfunctioning abilities from the american people? not only from the american people, but from you and cabinet officials, donors, even others in the white house? you think the low pulling has something to do with that? >> well, it very could have. looking at the numbers behind the numbers coming into that

conclusion as to what is going on here, i know that yesterday i spent a pretty full day with the congressional college in spartanburg and finished last night with a sneaker party for a head start on razor. i talked to people, talked to students. people still feel that joe biden had the capacity to do the work that needed to be done. they still feel that he was a good president. i do as well. so, these people are also concerned with the debate and are concerned as to whether or not that was an incident or if it was a condition being cap from people. i have no way of knowing which one is true. host: clyburn and tabbert

yesterday on "state of the union." paul, louisiana, we have been talking about the joe biden cancer diagnosis released yesterday. your reaction? caller: well, it's tragic, you know? i will be honest with you, i don't understand people, you know? this man was a president who had a prior life and it wasn't a good life. i think a lot of the things he did, he didn't do because he wasn't president. democrats in news media covered it up. everybody saw it. that's why trump won the election. i want to ask you one question. name one honorable democrat in house or senate. just one? host: how would you answer that question? caller: i don't see one.

i don't see anybody in the democratic party that is honest. they are all screaming. squad, screams. so much anger. you have to forgive joe biden for what he did. the bible said it. seven. seven times seven. that's the problem. we are supposed to always forgive. the democrats have so much hate in their hearts that they have no capacity to love people. they hate. that's all they do. host: you feel that way about every democrat in this country? what's that? host: you feel that way about every democrat in this country? caller: i'm sure there's a handful, but i don't see them on tv. those are the quiet ones who are probably honest christians. everybody is out there screaming. i don't hear mr. clyburn screaming. but he protected joe biden and

covered up, too. host: that was paul in louisiana. we are shifting an open forum for the rest of this first hour of "the washington journal." phone lines, democrats, (202) 748-8000, republicans, (202) 748-8001, independents, (202) 748-8002. you can continue to call in about all of the news going on. the house returns today at noon eastern, although the house budget committee was meeting late into the night last night on that? bill, as it is being called, the big beautiful bill as trump likes to refer to it. "house republicans finally launch the party line tax-and-spend package after republican leaders promised changes to appease fiscal hawks after embarrassing setbacks last

week with a vote to improve the measure for floor action following a weekend of appropriations for leaders in the white house and republican lawmakers who tanked the same boat on friday. mike johnson told reporters on sunday that minor modifications were promised to those holdouts. speaker johnson is looking to have a final vote in the house on that tax and spending package by the end of this week heading into the memorial day weekend. we will talk more about the week ahead in washington in about 30 minutes. i wanted to show you the cameras outside of the house budget committee meeting late last night. they finished their vote last night and advanced it to the house floor. congressman norman of south carolina, chip roy of texas, they spoke to reporters after the meeting. [video clip] >> great changes. there's more work to do. got to move the bill forward. it went like i thought.

>> what changes were confirmed that you secured? >> delaying requirements. >> window those kick in? >> five to three years. >> so? >> medicaid kicks in early, i think, two years. ira was a big deal. they cut that time frame by three years instead of 31, 32. work requirements for a big deal. excited. >> when do those kick in now? place i don't know. my mind, it's been a lot of work lately. but it's better than it was. flax why vote present? what do you need to do to get to a yes? >> we've been downgraded three times. we have problems with the death in this country. it's got to be dealt with. thank you. >> congressman?

can you explain? we don't want to chase you. >> i just put out a statement. it's on twitter. it speaks for itself. >> are you advancing the roles? >> i will say that there is more work to do this week. >> are you going to advance the start date? >> not going to talk about that stuff. spiegel -- the speaker sorted out. we made progress over the weekend. you can see it in my statement. we didn't go nearly far enough. they are already trying to -- i'm leaving it at that. there's more that needs to be done. [no audio] >> -- >> [inaudible] >> i'm not talking about private conversations. >> can you get it through this week? flex we will see. host: two of the republicans

voted present at the budget committee hearing last night. not yes or no, but present. in doing that, lower the threshold of republicans to advance it will last night. it heads to the house floor and we will see what happens with a final vote in the house. that's a topic that we can talk about in this open forum or any public policy issue that you want to discuss. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. 30 minutes left to do that in this hour. deborah, democratic line, good morning. caller: yes, good morning, how are you? host: i'm doing well. guest: caller: -- caller: caller: i'm calling, first of all, i'm devastated about president biden. it has broken my heart, but

there is the possibility that he will pull through, as god is good. i just want to say, pertaining to the vote that's going on, it's amazing to me how people can just forget so fast how much the democratic party did for america. biden was a president for all people. red states, blue states, no matter who they were. everybody, if they really come out of their fog, in their mind they know it's the truth. they know it's true. they also know what's false. it has been my prayer for a while, especially since trump came back into office and has been just like absolutely every day like a whiplash with your head. can you even believe what these people are doing?

it's like, to me they are just reading, reading every agency, putting us back on our heels to a place of 1930 or something. i was born, then, in 30. it's something i've never, ever seen in my whole life in america . i wish that these people that are participating this -- i don't even know what to call it. it seems like a call. it's a cult mind. they need to wake up. and realize, for instance, one thing that's on my mind is about how biden got the insulin. i mean, people forgot how he was trying to do good for everybody to help america. now, cutting medicare and all of these things they want to do to

get trillions of dollars for the rich? and they did that in 2020 and never paid the bill? that is why our deficit is so high. they never pay back the first money for the rich. host: do you think that the 2017 tax cuts passed by the first trump administration, do you think they will be extended? caller: it's a possibility, the way they are going. i think that, you know, they are really so afraid of trump, even if a few want to try to do the right thing because of their constituents in their town hall meetings who are just coming out and coming into the streets, the red states, still when they get in the back, in the back, when they get a phone call from trump like he has been doing, it's like the first thing.

why are they sticking together. getting to a nursing home? i just don't get it. host: now to florence, massachusetts. john, independent, good morning. caller: the mainstream media and the public, there's a positive for the democrats and for the republicans. i heard about this $400 million claim. what about the millions and billions of dollars supporting antisemitism? with the joe biden mental incapacity they want us to cry

about cancer? they say that they are looking forward, now. all they ever want to talk about his charlottesville. january 6. false narratives. republicans in congress, all these people in the primary, i want to know, what happened to joe manchin and kristin sinema? are they threatening chuck schumer and john fetterman now because they don't go death -- get along with anti-semitism? how about republicans being such dangerous people when the democratic army marches for everything. for george floyd. for everything they can march 4 and riot four for destroying the country? i don't want to hear about that stuff anymore. i also don't want to care about a few thousand people out there in the streets, the 350 million people that voted for trump and want to keep the illegals out.

want to keep fentanyl out. want to make law and order the order of the day. remember fighting for the january 6 going down to other country and fighting for illegal aliens who are gang women beaters? thanks a lot, democrats, you do nothing for americans yet again and push that, it's working good. host: that was john in florence, massachusetts. we started on the qatari plane, a subject of conversation on abc this week yesterday with republican senator rand paul. these were his thoughts on that. flex i would say that we sell more arms than any other country in the world. we are the largest arms merchant in the world. a lot of them go to golf she comes in those decisions are made by the executive branch. we have veto power in congress and i've been trying to veto

arms to qatar and saudi arabia over human rights abuses. could it color the perception of the administration if they have a 400 million dollar plane to be more in favor of these plays -- planes? perhaps. i don't think it's worth the headache of a conflict of interest and i think it's detracting from a largely successful trip to the middle east which included a lot of good things around expanding trade. >> he called it a perfectly legal transaction. do you see it that way and does it raise questions over emoluments? >> i think it's sort of depends how the transaction is set up. is there a possibility, could they donated back to boeing? there are ways that this could be arranged. what send signals that people were concerned about was that it would be temporarily part of the government and then going to the presidential library retires. all of those things could be fixed and corrected. there probably is a legal way.

right now it has raised more questions than it's worth. host: that was rand paul yesterday on "abc's this week." you can watch them gavel-to-gavel on c-span two. the house is back at noon and we can watch that here on c-span. robert, ohio, republican, you are up next, it's open for them. caller: i heard this lady talking about how biden was for red states in blue states and what the democrats have done in the last 12, let's say 25 years, besides put us in debt? the only democrat that was even good that you could say was a good president was bill clinton. now, you sit here and talk about how biden was for blue states and red states. but hyden weaponized the fbi to go after republicans.

republicans. not democrats. he weaponized them to go after people that was praying. people that was free for life. then you got the january 6. guess what? after all of that, none of these, none of these, eight nothing happen under these people that went out here and lied. mosque, casual shops, all of this. you know, the democrats ain't for a -- ain't for republicans. ain't for this country. if you can't see that already, you can see it by this man. they want all of the illegal immigrants to come in and be legal. they want to go fight for ray hill. brazier. that guy. whatever his name is in the el salvador prison.

he needs to be down there. that's where he's from. that's where he needs to stay. don't nobody want none of these illegal immigrants in our country. host: this is mark in charleston, south carolina. good morning. caller: hello. my name is mark. why is no one pointing out the fact that we have such a heavy debt? they are still giving the rich tax breaks? they didn't pay off the last tax break yet. at these critical moments, the democrats are not even trying to put out any kind of publication about what trump is doing. he's given them plenty of material to work with. that's my biggest thing. host: we are going to be talking

more about the debt in about 15 minutes, when we are joined by douglas holtz-eakin, the former head of the congressional budget office. he is joining us to talk about the republican tax bill that they are trying to move through, the reconciliation bill, and the u.s. national debt, currently at 37,000,000,000,800 $68,839,000,000 and counting, if you go to that clock.org. stick around for 15 minutes. caller: i will. i also hate the way that the president is merchandising the resources of the united states to the world. there's nothing honest about it. host: what's an example of merchandising the united states? caller: one, dave claimed and

questioned the things he's doing , in addition to the other deals he's making. he's making collusion in going to other places, setting it up before trump gets there, shaking hands for photo ops. host: that's mark in south carolina. florida, gainesville, jean, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: well. what's on your mind? it's open for them. caller: this country was founded on the god of the bible. when they took out the 10 commandments, that was blasphemy of the holy spirit. the only unpardonable sin is blasphemy of the holy spirit. if you burn a cross and are in the kkk, that's blasphemy of the holy spirit. if you put the kkk and black panthers against each other, let

them kill each other. host: all right. joe, good morning. caller: host: good morning, how are you? doing well. caller: i was going to say the black vote has most recently, from the 60's, always been the determination of the president. the black vote is starting to shift. i looked up malcolm x on youtube. malcolm x was one of the smartest leaders and advocates for the black that there ever was. one of his speeches, it's on youtube, he said that if, if you hope democrat you are a chump. if you are black and vote democrat, you are a chump and traitor to your race. guess what? two days later he was dead. that's all i got to say. host: there's a new book about malcolm x coming out by mark whitaker, "the aftermath of

malcolm x," outcome -- icon and his impact on america. are you going to read that book? caller: i would love to. didn't realize it was out there. host: fran new book coming out on the life of malcolm x. danielle, woodbridge, virginia, good morning. caller: how are you? host: doing well. caller: it feels kind of sad. we just got the message about the president yesterday. i wish that everyone would stop being so divided. everyone is just -- if we could just come together, you know what i mean? all of this hate here and there, why does it have to be like this? host: what is it that can bring this country together in 2025, danielle? caller: i don't know what to think. the hate just seems so intense.

i just think that everybody should just bring it down a little, you know what i mean? the president, you know, it's awful what's happening to him. everyone has a grandfather and a father and an uncle in a brother. -- and a brother. look at them, say hey, that could have been someone in my family that happened to. you know what i mean? the more compassionate instead of just saying that he did this and deserves that. host: why do you think we have trouble with compassion, with empathy? do you think it is worse today than it used to be? caller: yes, i think it's absolutely worse than it was before. i just wish we could all just come back together. almost wish we didn't have republicans and democrats.

let everyone be one, you know what i mean? we all just work together. it doesn't have to be where it so divided. host: do you think that george washington was right when he warned caller: caller: about political parties? i think so, yeah, i do. i wish everyone could literally come together. common sense. -- hey, i have a dad. i have a brother. and uncle. this could be me. this could be my family. he has a wife. he has kids. he has grandkids. you know what i mean? they watch tv they can hear things. i'm sure they watch c-span, you know what i mean? people should start showing him or love with what's going on. host: paris, ohio, independent

line, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: what's on your mind? caller: i would like to ask the republicans out there, i add -- i was a republican at one time. i voted republican. in the last several elections, i voted with independent thoughts and not democrat or republican. george washington had it right. get politics out of the elections. there shouldn't be political parties. it should be people who are concerned about doing the best for the best people available. then we would have a much better outcome. they should look at what happened to the president when he went to trial with e. jean carroll and a jury of his peers, he was found guilty. he sexually assaulted her.

$90 million in debt. for this atrocity. he was convicted by a jury of his peers and indicted by a grand jury, with 34 counts of misappropriations of funds in the hush money ordeal. and he got out of that. in the mueller report, he would have been in big trouble if he had invented -- hadn't been president at the time. the supreme court then allows him to be scot-free and not accountable from these trials that he was convicted of, convicted of a crime. host: duke, west virginia, good morning. caller: hello. i hope you guys are having a good day up there.

i kind of think that maybe joe biden got this problem because he has been a cancer ever since he got into politics. host: that's duke. this is brian. gainesville, democrat, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. quick comment. i think we are doing too much infighting between the parties, between the republicans and democrats, we don't really have our eye on the ball. the big beautiful bill is coming up for a vote and most of america is really paying attention to what's in it. they used the same -- if they used the same kind of intensity of trying to get a hold of their congressman, maybe there would be a lot more things getting taken care of in government. the other comment i had was for the fellow who said that they had -- that we were kind of

exploiting the presidency. yeah, take a look at the guy with the mean coins, the white house, the first 220 people that pick up a coin get a free tour? i don't think that's necessarily the right way to go. but i appreciate you having the consumers at the consumer budget office coming up. host: that's right, douglas holtz aiken. with the american action forum. one of the things we will be talking about is that budget bill that advanced to the house floor late last night after finally overcoming the votes needed to get out of the budget committee. this is one of the headlines on it from this morning in "the wall street journal." republicans far over how deeply and quickly to cap medicaid. how much do you know about what's in the bill, brian? are there specific things that concern you? caller: i don't and that's half

the problem. there was a vote last night with five republicans who held out because they didn't agree with some of the language in the bill . those that pass the bill, four of them decided to kick up to president and that's how it got out of committee. it's going to keep going. my problem is, how much is getting added to it that the congressmen are never going to read anyway. you try to put it all in the one bill and then there's a whole bunch of things that are hidden in you don't find out about it until it has gone through congress. i think they are trying to cut a lot more out of medicaid. i don't see how it's possible. i am so kind of confused on the work ethic, where you have to work so many hours to pick up medicaid. host: caller: the work requirement? caller:yeah, what does that have to do for someone who needs medical assistance who can't afford it?

host: so, the medicaid program itself, this is from the same story, "the package republicans are moving takes aim at instituting medical requirements for most able-bodied adults through age 64 without a dependent. the work acquirements would take effect until 2029 and that may have been negotiated down, when we see the final results of what it took to overcome the hurdle in the budget committee, taking aim at california and reducing federal medical payments to the state for providing health care coverage for immigrants in the country illegally. that provision, the timing is in question as to when that would kick in. those are some of the work requirement provisions you're talking about. caller: and the people here illegally getting those payments, i'm not for that

either. i understand the flight and the problems they have, but what happens medicaid payments for these people away? do they show up to the hospital in an emergency room for the hospitals that have to? if they don't have any medical coverage, they show up at the hospital in an emergency room that has to take them. talk about flooding the hospitals. host: thank you for the call. we've got about five minutes left here in open forum and we will have more here later today. this one is tampa, independent line, florida. caller: how you doing? good morning. host: well. caller: i call you seven or eight years ago, when trump first came on the scene, talking about making america great again. you asked me what do i think, this and that.

i ask you to ask any of your callers to name a time when america was great for everyone. no one get in the last seven years has said when america was great for everyone. anyway, john, you guys do a great job. i'm calling as an independent. the gentleman a while back who said that he couldn't find a democrat who was good, he couldn't name a republican that he could consider to be good or honest or this or that. now, america is two countries, john. i'm retired military. i've been around the world. there's two countries that i know of where skin color is an issue. that's america and south africa. i don't know why they are still caught up on the skin issue deal when everybody was supposed to

have been made equal in the sight of god. you always have these people calling and talking about they are christian this and that, but they always want to say because of this person's skin color or the d.e.i. or this or that. lastly, john, i appreciate everything you guys do and i hope that someone calls and to say when america was great for everyone without the police putting their knee on somebody's neck and killing them and feel good about it. thank you, john. keep doing what you're doing. host: this is mark in minnesota, republican line, good morning, time for maybe just a couple more calls here. caller: yeah, i wanted to say that i'm disappointed in jake tapper for disparaging president biden. he may have made a bad decision, but we all have. host: what was the bad decision

you are referring to? caller: his decision to run for president. he obviously wasn't prepared or able. host: you are saying in 2024 or more recently? -- or sooner? caller: when he ran in 2024. jake tapper's book is about the original sin. you know, it's bad enough, if you are trying to make money off of it, which is disappointing to me. thank you for your time. host: big cnn washer? caller: cnn, fox, i watch all of it. i'm disappointed that he would disparage our president. now that the cancer thing has come out, that makes it worse for me. anyway, thank you for your call. host: that was mark in minnesota. mary, last caller in the first

segment, go ahead. caller: calling about gaza. it's unbelievable that 75,000 palestinians have been killed in the last few months. netanyahu is committing genocide. we are giving him arms. ahu doing what he is doing because he wants to make room for more settlers. host: you said 75,000. the number i had heard was 53,000. caller: i think i watched it on msnbc. also, we should stop giving arms to israel so we could not be complicit in this genocide.

we are giving them arms and they are doing what they want to do. trump is trying so hard to contain them and yet netanyahu pays no attention to what he is saying and continues to do what he wants to do. host: the front page story in the new york times, israel expanding its attacks in gaza. the military announcing on sunday its forces had begun extensive ground operation throughout the northern and southern gaza strip expanding its plan to move further into the enclave in an intensified campaign in pressuring hamas amid negotiations for a cease-fire. you could read the story in the "new york times. that will do it for this first hour of the washington journal.

a little later on today with virginia kase solomon. former ceo director and president of the american action joins us to talk about the republican budget and what's ahead for the agenda. stick around, we will be right back. ♪ >> this week on the c-span networks, the house and senate are in session. the house plans to take up gop house spending legislation as well as border security and energy production goals. the senate will attempt to take up cryptocurrency legislation for the second time.

they voted against advancing the stable coin bill later this month. it begins with marco rubio testifying watch live later this week for the c-span networks now. our free mobile video app. head over to c-span.org for scheduling information or for live on demand any time. c-span, democracy unfiltered. >> if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage, find it any time at c-span.org, videos of key hearings, debates, and other events featuring markers that guide you to newsworthy highlights. they appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on select videos. making it easy to get an idea of

what was debated and decided in washington. spend a few minutes on points of interest. >> nonfiction book lovers, c-span has a number of podcasts for you. listen to best-selling nonfiction authors on the afterwards podcast. here wide-ranging conversations with nonfiction authors and others making exact. book notes plus episodes are our weekly hour-long conversation that feature fascinating authors of nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics. find all of our podcasts by downloading the free c-span now app. on our website, c-span.org/pod asked. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we welcome douglas holtz-a iken, currently president of the american action forum.

for folks who might not know, what is it? guest: it is a center-right think tank, we evaluate and try to understand the range of domestic and economic policies. host: very much a part of this budget bill that was passed down to the house budget committee last night, the expectation from the speakers office is they will get a vote in the house this week. your 30,000 foot view, we do you like it? what are your concerns? guest: it is going to avoid a large tax increase in 2026 that would almost certainly lead to a downturn. past that, it is not outstanding tax policy, a list of fiscal problems, which we know are pressing. it's also what's at stake here. it's extensions of 2017 law, more of the same.

there are some provisions to improve business investment and research and development. there are positives. there is a collection of promises the president made on the campaign trail which will have very little to do with economic growth and go the wrong direction from a tax policy point of view. broaden the base, treat everything the same. it's not another step in tax reform, it is very different than 2017. host: there was a caller in our first segment very concerned about the debt in this country, what does this bill do for the trajectory of debt in this country? guest: it makes it modestly worse, that is a little disappointing. the gold standard would be do something that is budget neutral

, program tax reform. if you do that, you could make some fiscal process. that was the gold standard. at the other end of the spectrum, make it no worse. can't be too excited about this from a budgetary point of view. host: you talked about the moody's downgrade, could you explain what that is? guest: one of three very important rating agencies. they say you will pay back for sure, some risk associated. the first two downgrade the united states was 2011. you are no longer aaa, we have some concerns. those were about the politics. 2023 did essentially the same thing. it said the u.s. is showing inability to manage its finance. largely political disputes. this is very different and more troubling.

you have a lot of debt. you have a lot of interest, you might not be able to pay. for that reason we are downgrading you from a surefire repay to a little risk. host: the treasury secretary was on meet the press yesterday. i want to play his response. >> i think moody's is a lagging indicator. that's what everyone thinks of credit industries. larry summers and i don't agree on everything. they downgraded the u.s. in 2011. it is a lagging indicator. just like sean duffy said with air traffic control, we didn't get here in the past 100 days. it is the biden administration that we have seen over the past four years, we inherited 6.7% deficit to gdp. we are determined to bring the

spending down and grow the economy. >> fair enough but under president trump's first administration he had $8 trillion to the nation's debt in his first term, plenty of blame to go around. >> let's review, we were in the rescue portion of covid. the biden administration was in the recovery portion. if not for senators manchin and senator sinema, who are no longer in the democratic caucus, it would've been four or five trillion more. host: your thoughts on his view on moody's downgrade? guest: it's a little disappointing. don't pay attention to it, it doesn't mean that much. it is not our fault. i would like someone to say this is a problem and we intend to do something about it. the notion that is a lagging indicator is a confusion to meet.

it's something where the problem arrives. that means he's acknowledging we have a problem. why don't we do something about it? host: debt being a big part of that problem. how much is too much? is there a moment when we will accumulate a certain amount of debt that will be a breaking point and we will all know it is too much? guest: the answer is yes. at some point in our trajectory, even relative to the size of a growing economy, international creditors take a look at that and lose the confidence that you will repay either the interest or principal in a timely fashion. i don't know what day that is. no one knows what day that is. host: is this happening all at once? guest: there have been lots of sovereign debt crisis, portugal, greece, argentina. it is usually something unrelated to the budget that

triggers it and suddenly it is there. you go bankrupt very slowly and then all at once. that is true for countries as well. i think the right way to think about it is having a sovereign debt crisis is failing. not having one is a great. let's take this on and put our finances in order. we did that in the 20th century. we got better economic performance. now it doubles every 56 years. you get the sense that people know that. why don't we take care of our finances, educate people building factories, software. that's the right way to go. host: there was a caller on friday that said why don't we have balance budgets anymore? guest: we don't have balance

budgets for two reasons. we did have one at the end of the 20th century. i recall that. two things have gone on in this century. we don't clean up after crisis. world war ii had recessions, all of the things that we face. they went way up. that it came back down. this century, it goes up it stays up. we don't clean up after the emergency response. we have to pay $1 trillion in interest this year. the second thing that has gone on is development. we have social security, medicare. they are driven by the democracy. there is a fundamental mismatch between revenue which goes here. that is continued throughout the 21st century.

we have a structural deficit plus emergencies. host: douglas holtz-aiken is president of the american action form taking your phone calls with us for about the next dirty minutes or so. it is (202) 748-8000 for democrats. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. as folks are calling in and this big bill made its way out of the budget committee, remind viewers what the role of the congressional budget office is and how that works? guest: a score is simply how much will this bill change money flowing into the treasury and money flowing out of the treasury, what does it do to the deficit? that is the score. it shows it year by year and gives it its provision in the bill. it is a detailed account from

the budgetary impact. the job is to score bills considered by congress. i know what they are doing to federal finance. they have to make some evaluations of how programs work. we take up the medicare provision and get health care insurance. they do all of that based on the consensus and research in a nonpartisan fashion. it is a phenomenal place. host: in a place where we get a lot of numbers, our ceo numbers the most trustworthy numbers when they come out on a big will like this? guest: yes, that doesn't mean they are right. host: explain. guest: when i was director in 2003 we's -- past the health care modernization act. it's an insurance priority against the cost of outpatient

and prescription drugs for seniors. the cbo had to imagine who would supply the insurance, who would supply the drugs and at what price. how would the federal subsidy affect the insurance. what would all of this mean to the taxpayer? we got it wrong by about 25%. cbo is most important one congress is doing something. it's not that they are right but they will try their best to be too high as too low. give you some motion of the scale of the enterprise. they did a good job of it. host: we will get into this bill on the house floor. let me take some calls. this is katie in silver springs, maryland, good morning. caller: good morning. i was curious, we have our president and his personal life,

multiple bankruptcies, maybe that was kind of strategically to manage his finance and capitalize. i was wondering if that perspective, how that translates or if it does translate into the administration's policies and representation of our debt, spending in the world, how we move policy forward? guest: it's a really good question. i get asked questions like this a lot. i'm qualified to guess that it is a state of mind. his track record in his first time in office and now again as president is not one that indicates the fiscal situation. if you are serious about that you should be serious about taking reforms to preserve social security and medicare.

you have to reduce the amount of spending on that. he took them off the table. host: is there enough fraud, waste, abuse? guest: you have to change the programs. they were designed for the 1930's and 1960's respectively. it will match our demography and things like that. that was 2003. in 2003 the major job was keeping people alive on very expensive oncology drugs. it is a different world. the program has to reflect that. host: what is a fair way to modify and reduce benefits? who does that impact, if you were the one being asked to design this bill, what would you

do? guest: i would let the american people decide and i'm serious about that. here is the situation. i have lived a life of disappointment, i do budgets. [laughter] social security trust fund will go bankrupt in eight years, they will not have the legal authority to pay full benefits. i don't think uri believe congress will let people take a 21% cut in retirement. that means if you are 55 and thinking about retiring, there will be social security for -- reform and you don't know what your benefits will be. i think every year we get closer to that people will realize what is the deal? how will you extend the life of this program? congress owes them that answer. i want to reform social security and they end up working at the tasty rees, they will go to the

town hall and say we need to reform social security. there will be a huge fight over the details of that. host: you don't think it becomes a hot potato that gets passed around? guest: you have to fix it. that is a good thing. our representative will be engaged in fixing it. there will be a vigorous debate. i don't think any analyst like i , we have had many commissions. they all do a collection of these that are very similar. they want to raise the calf on tax learning. they change the award of initial benefits so very affluent people get less than they do now. might even consider not giving the most affluent any at all. social security is an insurance policy. i could name a handful of people i don't think will outlive the

resources. then you have to figure out where to draw the line. these are already being tested some. you could do some flipping of the dials on how you influence things. you could get some progress on making the program for the 21st century. host: fort lauderdale, tom, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to ask about these medicare cuts. the republicans want to make sick people work to get tax cuts for people like charles koch and the democrats can't make a point of this? what's wrong with these republicans. all of these doge press releases, are any of these legislations and cost cuts going to be legalized in this new bill? guest: two good questions. these are medicaid cuts that

they are proposing. that is the low income health care program. i don't think anyone is proposing that people who are sick be forced to work. they would have work requirements for those who are able. that is the basic framework. that is not really a budgetary issue. it says you should be willing to work. we have had this debate several times and we will have it again. i don't think there's any real budgetary savings. that is a slightly different issue. the doge cuts, this is a very big deal. there are two kinds of things doge has done, one has reduced federal employment. the listener should know that is not a serious budgetary activity. we spend maybe $400 billion on the conversation for civilian workers.

we ran a deficit of $1.8 trillion last year. the second thing they've done is not spend money. that is called empowerment. congress has authorized the spending. in 1974, president nixon did this. they took him to court. that spawned the congressional budget office. the budget process. now it is against the law to simply impound money. the president could say i don't want to spend this money and congress has 45 days to agree, in which case the money comes back. they could disagree or the money goes out. the money doge is sitting on will end up as part of a case that will test the legality. if the courts uphold its legality that money has to go out and all of those behind savings will have turned out to be federal. host: several viewers tweeting

about this program and have a conversation. michael is one of them. he sends this question, how much will taxes increase if the 2017 tax reform isn't made permanent? will or could that help the budget deficit? guest: they would go up by about $425 billion next year. my concern is that abruptly, that is going to generate enough headway to knock the economy sideways or in its weakened state into a recession. one thing that does not ever improve federal finance is a recession. we have stabilizers that spend more. typically they turn right around and do a big spending program.

i don't think we have done a very good job on that front. i don't think we should root for a recession. host: we talked about this budget bill that made it out of committee last night. the house rules committee just announced their meeting to consider the bill. this is the rules vote, the package for the final floor vote. that will take place wednesday, i had to triple check, 1:00 a.m. ahead of the floor debate and vote. guest: only c-span has years at 1:00 a.m. host: those are often vigorous debates. 1:00 a.m. on what they morning, that is eastern time for viewers around the country. this is jeannie in marysville, ohio, good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question. i wanted to know is there a

budget for -- i'm a welder, i have been experiencing union discrimination. i wanted to know if there's something in the budget for the working class people that are trying to work and get employed and there is a pushback on women in construction. i wanted to bring that up to see if there will be something in the budget for policies and procedures that will help individuals like myself that are being blackballed from the industry. guest: thank you for the question. the short answer is no. the reason is the republicans are trying to pass this legislation using fast track procedures known as reconciliation.

the important restriction is you only get to do that if you stick to things that are strictly budgetary nature. you can't go out and make a new policy. you hear a lot of talk about things in this bill with energy policies, border policies, regulation reforms. they will sit down and go through the bill and say is this primarily budgetary in nature or not? if not they will take it out. it has been something that both parties have used. they tried to include an increase in the federal minimum wage. that came out as not primarily budgetary in nature. host: is it going line by line or did one side propose challenges and say this doesn't team budgetary, is that knocking

off jurors in a juror pool? guest: this is a procedure which we go to the late senator robert byrd who did not like the idea of inflation. bypass the rules of the senate. host: he liked to protect the rules of the senate. guest: the way this works is they are here with the bill. they start going through. republicans say that is fine. democrats say i don't like that, they make their case and the parliamentarian decides. host: is that something that happens behind closed doors? guest: yes. host: is that something you think would be behind cameras? guest: i have never thought about it but i probably would say not. caller: good morning. i am hoping that you could help

me make the math the work. as far as the budget is concerned, this is including doge, the fact that we are practically at five months in 2025. the last i checked, we are already $319 million over budget. host: it would be doing well if it was that. guest: probably billions. caller: i thought it was millions. maybe i didn't get the right number. i'm confused. if doge is doing such a great job, why are they asking for $4.5 trillion more for the next budget?

why are they changing the debt ceiling, making it for trillion dollars higher as well? guest: the math is very confusing. i would say you have at least three things going on. in fiscal 2025, the year that we are in, the federal government will spend $7 trillion. they will spend $1 trillion on interest, $1.8 trillion on the annual decision of congress, defense spending, funding for the agencies to do basic research and all of those things. they will spend $4.2 trillion on mandatory spending. social security, medicare, medicaid, things like that. that is a lot of money. the president has made requests

for changes to that one point $8 trillion in discretionary spending for next year. if you have heard about wanting more or less it is in that context. they will have to pass law to decide how much they are going to spend. the house and senate are considering changes to the mandatory spending program to see where that goes. there's a lot with where we are headed on that front. the bulk of the changes are concentrated in the community that has medicare jurisdiction, medicaid gets all the attention. they have limited ability to change that framework. those are all things going on as they fight about what it will look like raising $5.2 trillion in revenue. there is the debt limit.

we have deficits. we borrow a lot. at some point we hit the limit congress has authorized the treasury to borrow. we hit debt limit on january 1. the treasury has been keeping us under the limit. which in reality are not particularly extraordinary. we take the treasuries out of them. if you take them back they are under the limit. this process. it is restored after the fact. it could only hold on so long. they have to raise the debt limit. the bills are just coming due. i am concerned given the downgrade by moody's all of the eyes on the united states that we might have another episode where we go up to that last-second and scare financial markets to death.

it would be wise to have a plan to take that off the table. it makes me nervous. host: you mentioned we spend about $1 trillion, could you ever renegotiate interest payments, could the federal government do that? or would that be a disaster? guest: that is them saying they can't pay and we want to get a payment plan. that would frighten international lenders to death. the disaster comes from the fact that treasuries, the dollar is the foundation. what that really means is if i'm in argentina, ecuador, france, i could go get a hold of some treasuries and i know i could buy some. i could sell them when i need the cash. it is really just a buy and sell of liquidity treasuries.

everyone believes you could always get your money. , you don't want to buy it. you have ground the international financial system. we should not mess with that. host: kathy in the tar heel state. caller: how are you? i'm 65 years old and i have paid in social security all my life. i'm tired of people viewing it as an entitlement program, it is not. we paid it. i have $150 for my social security bill taken out. may i might add, health care websites, $79 per month. people have been getting free health care for how long?

i also pay for a premium of $140 per month to protect myself from the 20% that the medicare doesn't cover. tell me we are not responsible. we have been far more responsible than everybody for the past 10 or 15 years. we have been robbed. we have had theft, fiscal irresponsibility of both political parties. i don't want to hear this anymore. we lost our pensions, lost our homes, lost our job. we have been victims multiple times, you have no idea what our generation has been through. guest: lots of people feel that

they paid for all of their social security and many have. social security redistributes. some people pay more on the lifetime basis than they ever get out of it. that is a case-by-case basis. medicare was never designed fully funded. the original program was just the hospital program. a payroll tax and trust fund. when they moved to doing outpatient care and did prescription drugs and on the medicare insurance program they made it premium funded. when they looked at the premiums they said that is a lot of money. we will have them cover one quarter of the cost of the program. medicare was never designed to be financially self-sufficient. it is not. to get subsidized by the general taxpayer.

that is the biggest source of reading. it is responsible for about one third of all debt. i think going forward it would be wise to rethink how wise all medicare is. make sure it does add up. host: what is your view on tariffs? guest: i think this has been a terrible misadventure. i do. tariffs are taxes. if you look at this from a tax policy point of view, if you want to raise a fair amount of revenue. he proposed a $400 billion tax increase. he did that. that was extraordinary. you saw how people reacted. you wouldn't pick a national sales tax that only covered half of the goods. you have a broad base.

it is a very regressive tax. tariffs are hard to administer. host: why is it regressive? guest: they are buying things out of need. it is not a good revenue. it is not a good idea to have a big tax increase. the economy is noticeably weaker. no question about that. we have different kinds of tariffs. we have steel, aluminum, semi conductors, lumber, copper, films. all of these are done under the guise of national security. i think it is an open question. certainly we have done steel tariffs. 2001 we did it.

again in 2018, here we are again. it doesn't work. host: is it bringing in enough revenue to make a difference on that spending gap that we keep watching into the future? guest: it is not substantial, it never will be. it's a question on its policy merit. the ones on canada and mexico, they are a unified economic entity. they are the most damaging thing you could post. he carved those out. we have a 10% universal tariff. we have these reciprocal tariffs . secretary besson said he will start sending messages.

that puts us at levels we haven't seen in 100 years. we are in uncharted territory with this experiment. i haven't seen any good come of it yet. host: ronald, myrtle beach, democrat, good morning. caller: i will be quick. has there been a budget analysis work requirement that is actually going to save? guest: not much. caller: there can't be. you want to volunteer for a city or state. a lot of those businesses don't want people there that are unemployed. they don't want those people. what do you think about those? guest: i don't know about the latter. it is not something i ever studied or looked at.

they have come up a number of times and as i said to your caller earlier, i don't think about the budget. there's not a lot of dollars saved. it's about your view of the philosophy that you should be willing to work in the exchange for the support of your fellow tax bears. host: this is carla in missouri. independent. caller: i wanted to ask your guest, what is the status of the snap program and what he thinks the prospects are to get it restored to the budget? i would like to know what he thinks about it. guest: the snap program is still on the books. it is not going away. the reforms that have been proposed in-house are primarily shifting more of the burden to pay for it to the states. to have the amount that they shift depend on how effectively

the program is administered. it is not really anything that says we want to change the beneficiary's life. they want to change how the program gets administered and who foots the bill. host: this headline from this weekend, donald trump tells walmart to eat the tariffs after the retailer warned it will raise prices. walmart should stop trying to blame tariffs as the reason for raising prices through the chain between walmart and china they showed, eat the tariff and not charge customers anything. i will be watching and so will your customers. guest: i don't think we should have gravity. let things fall, they hurt. it is a cost. businesses have to cover cost. he could not like it.

walmart has margins. you could kiss the margins goodbye. walmart is not going to be around long if he just wants to get the president happy. he put them in an untenable position. host: do remember another time a president told a specific company how to price their goods? guest: no. i'm sure it has happened. we have had job opening by presidents on issues like labor issues. president biden walked on the picket line. people have done similar things. he gets pretty granular. that is unusual. host: this is wayne from pennsylvania, democrat. go ahead.

caller: how are you doing? host: doing well. caller: everybody is worried about medicare, let's take the caps off. if they want to pay their share, that's all i have to say. god bless you all, goodbye. guest: there is no caps on medicare payroll taxes. it is a smaller tax. the cap is in social security. there have been a variety of proposals. host: where do you stand? guest: i think we should raise the cap. we are now well south of 90% of wages. 80's, high 70's. i have big project problems.

-- budget problems. exclusively on the cap side that won't work. we have to figure out where we are willing to do spending cuts and tax increases. that has been politically difficult. host: i wanted to ask about the american action forum, what projects are you working on that we haven't talked about yet? guest: i built the american action forum out of my experiences on the mccain campaign. what i did was policy research. policy advice. i did it in real time on whatever was happening that day. my idea was to educate the people around me on the campaign. there would be value to that outside of the political setting. something where an oil rig blows up in the gulf and we say what

are our options. we will cover what is going on in congress. we have talked about that today. we keep track of what is going on in the agencies as well. there's a lot of executive activity. host: easy enough to find. douglas holtz-aiken, appreciate your time on "washington journal." guest: thank for having me. host: later this morning a conversation with virginia kase solomon. we have that conversation in about a half an hour. open forum, any political issue that you want to talk about. start calling in and we will get to your calls right after the break. ♪

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capitol hill today. the house is in at noon eastern. it is open forum right now for the next 30 minutes taking your phone calls on any public policy, political issue. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. an update on the week ahead on capitol hill. politico congressional reporter there. start with last night's budget committee vote and where this big beautiful bill goes from here. guest: what we saw was really the big beautiful bill getting over the latest hurdle on the way to the floor. last week he came up in the budget committee. by sunday night, gop leaders got members of the committee to flip from a no vote to a present vote.

this allowed them to keep moving on the bill as they registered some pretty strong objections. this week what we will see is a give and pull between all of these different factions over the big beautiful bill. host: these conservative members, what did they get? have we been able to detail what allowed them to flip their vote enough to allow this bill to move to the house floor? guest: the details are pretty sparse. jodey arrington said things were in flux. they weren't sure what it was going to be. what seems to be clear is they are moving up the day for medicare work requirements. what these conservatives really want our deeper cuts to these biden era clean energy programs and perhaps deeper cuts to

medicaid as well. host: conservative members have a chance in the final vote to put a check on the bill. the math here and what speaker johnson is up against. guest: it depends on how many folks will be present on thursday when this is expected to come up for a vote. on one hand there is conservatives who want deeper cuts to medicaid. the problem is if they cut too deep they lose the purple district republicans who have vowed to vote against the built that doesn't include enough medicaid on enough state local tax reductions and so on. host: i imagine this will be the story that dominates your week this week. who will you be focused on and most interested in talking to as you track what happens? guest: the folks that will be interesting are the folks who have been registering objections all along. that is the hardline

conservatives like chip roy who have been clear they want these deeper cuts to medicaid and spending programs. also going to keep an ion the purple district republicans like mike lawler of new york who could really be on the other side of the conference. host: how unusual is a house rules committee meeting at 1:00 a.m. scheduled for wednesday ahead of the house floor debate? guest: it's very unusual. that is normally the thing that happens during the daylight hours. for seasoned viewers of the rules committee, that will be some interesting late-night watching. host: what happens? guest: republican leaders introducing what is a manager, the final cut of the bill that they will introduce to replace the existing tax and resolve any

of these last-minute issues popping up before they vote on it possibly thursday morning. in the next couple hours we are expecting republican leaders to brief members on a private conference line about all of these changes happening to the bill. we will get more details coming soon. host: what is the path in the senate? guest: some republicans declared it dead on arrival. those senators are likely to try to advance their own version of the big beautiful bill. resolving those differences will be very hard. host: this will take up a lot of your time, what else should we be watching for on capitol hill this week? guest: it will crowd up pretty much all legislative on capitol hill this week. there's also the house oversight

committee taking a look at noncitizen voting in d.c. host: read all about it as it happens at politico.com. we go through the -- a congressional reporter there. they queue for starting your week with us. host: your calls now. any political issue you want to talk about, now is your time. this is danny in tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. this trump coin thing, i have never seen anything like this. it is just a way to bribe the president. he's going to have a dinner. i would like to see who these 220 people are and how many people are going in. host: you say that as a republican? caller: yes. i call it like it is. host: are you a republican who voted for donald trump? caller: yes.

host: all three times? caller: no. host: what elections did you support him? caller: the last one. host: that was the only time? caller: that's it. host: why was 2020 24 the one that convinced you was time to vote or donald trump? caller: i thought he was going to do something for the country. all he is doing is fattening his wallet. he jumped all over zelenskyy when he was in the white house. he will give putin whatever he wants. i would give zelenskyy everything he wants to stop this. host: that is danny in the volunteer state. democrat, ray, good morning.

caller: i want to say i am a 14 year prostate cancer survivor. i am hearing some pretty disturbing calls this morning. accusing joe biden, you have the master of coverups in the white house. do you understand what i am talking about? this is sad. what has joe biden done? stimulus bill, saved us from covid. do you understand? i have a 79-year-old combat vietnam veteran. host: what did you make as somebody who has been a survivor of prostate cancer, what did you think about the announcement

that joe biden's office put out yesterday giving some detailed information about his diagnosis, what did you read into it? caller: it's something that most men if you live long enough will have to put up with. you will get prostate cancer if you live long enough. for these people to criticize, good lord. these people are wild, what could you say? i'm serious. it is sickening. host: that israel north carolina. this is john, independent, good morning. caller: i don't know if you covered the story that was on 60 minutes two weeks ago where she talked about the fraud that is

being perpetrated upon the u.s. government. estimated at somewhere between $560 billion and $750 billion. a year with loss and fraud. it seems to me that when people are talking about elon musk and his approach to try and crackdown on fraud, i'm not hearing about these numbers at all. i would really like to hear both sides, republican and democrat be able to come together on this . that's a lot of money that if we could stop that would help improve our situation. host: what did you think of that 60 minute interview and linda miller, she spent 10 years or

more at the government accountability office, that is the 60 minutes instagram page of her video appearance. caller: i thought it was very interesting and i was surprised to hear those kind of numbers being talked about. it's not something being talked about within our government at least publicly. at one point in the interview she said when she would talk to different congressional leaders about this issue, she would submit a report that they were asking her to change the word fraud in the report to something else and she was like what do you want to call it? it is fraud. host: that is john in ohio. we are coming up on 9:00 a.m. eastern time. there is a white house briefing

scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m.. we will cover that on c-span2. we will be back here on the washington journal on till 10:00 a.m.. the house is in at noon eastern. the senate is in at 2:00 p.m. eastern. some other events today, a discussion on public transportation. members of congress and the american transportation legislative council our meeting in d.c., speakers include congressman lytton -- rick larsen. the transportation secretary sean duffy and others. , and others. we will also have it on c-span.org hand, of course, our free c-span now video out.

all six branches of the military will discuss defense strategy and military readiness in an event hosted by the council on foreign relations. we will be covering that on also c-span.org, and the free c-span now video app. i hope you stay with us all day long. right now it is our open forum. our caller in durango, colorado, republican. good morning. caller: good morning, john. you know mr. eakin was saying people should not be sitting on the couch if they can go out and work. how about if the president needs all of those mega companies that just charge so much money, like the telephone companies, the electric company, how about if they lower their rates for the

good of the american people, and we can get on with life at a regular rate? thank you. host: do you think they would do that? caller: well, he negotiates with the whole world. maybe they will! they've got money at the kazoo, don't you think? host: that is phyllis in durango, colorado. we wanted to go to the other end of pennsylvania avenue. we are joined by naomi lam of the washington examiner, white house reporter there. naomi, good morning to you. as we look at the week ahead at the white house, how much at this point you get a sense that the white house is going to get involved in this so-called big beautiful bill that republicans are trying to pass in the house. guest: further house budget

committee to pass it, we had trump from the middle east put out a tweet saying "get the job done." we know house speaker mike johnson was kneeling over the weekend as part of negotiations, and we saw that i get out of committee last night. now moving forward, we have the early morning vote. the procedure about how this will go forward is voted on. but we are still seeing all of the different factions of the republican party still at large ahead. so johnson is in a bit of a pickle, a political pickle. i think they will try to use a last-minute resort, the president, i mean, but we will see what happens, particularly the house, the president wants to handle the medicaid cuts that are potentially on the table. host: who's likely become before

that last minute? is that the treasury secretary, the vice president, who are the people who actually may be making the trip down pennsylvania avenue? guest: the vice president is involved more in the senate. we see that where he eventually goes to the senate. they have the time to get this all task by july 4. i think there will be a team of people being dispatched and trying to leverage wherever they can, because they obviously have the moderates that want, you know, a range of moderates whether they want cuts to medicaid or state and local tax deductions, and then on the other line, you have the hardliners that, you know, want the opposite, they want more fiscal management.

to get all of those together, it will be a key effort. host: you mentioned the commerce secretary. let me ships to trade and commerce. are any new trade deals expected out of the white house this week? guest: this is something we are all hoping to no pit we solve reporting over the weekend that they are expected to be in this week. it might be a package of trade deals. i think that was acknowledgment that getting 90 different trade deals in 90 days, particularly the train advisor, peter navarro, suggested that the whole liberation day announcement, that is something that is ntially a little harder than they thought. i think japan and south korea were floated initially, but that seems to be things, the way that those talks have gone. it might be sort of more vietnam were smaller trading partners, particularly as the administration figures out how

to tackle the china trade network. host: always interested in hoyt high-profile visitors to the white house. the president of south africa expected in the sea this week and explain what president trump will be traffic about -- chatting about. guest: he will be in town, particularly when he has the high-profile of elon musk, the ceo of tesla, although a diminished profile in the white house, has been a very vocal voice, particularly given his own south african heritage, and the pressure around racial discrimination but against white people. we saw last week some 60 so-called refugees from south africa, white south africans, arrived at dulles airport on their expedited visa process.

the white house has been forced to defend that, make sure that is not just for one but for all minorities. we will see that when it comes to the fore. you saw the white house last week saying they will not try to help south africa organize the g20 summit, which is happening later. they will be hosting it later this year. so there is a pressure on all amounts, and i think this will be a very high stakes meeting for that leader. there's a lot of high-stakes meeting when it comes to foreign policy, but that is one we will be watching, the politics that surround it. host: the latest on the white house's efforts to achieve a peace deal between ukraine and russia. guest: yeah. russian president vladimir putin, of course, that call is at 10:00 or even within the next hour. we will see what comes from that. trump sort of put pressure on

zelenskyy, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy, with putin in turkey. that meeting happened with lower tier representatives, because putin backed out in the end. we are seeing trump really put his personal, you know, reputation on the line here. we saw him say that only putin will come, he has to sit down with putin, have a one-on-one discussion to hopefully end the war. but also over the weekend, you saw a record number of drones. so i think the pressure is mounting on trump to get some sort of deal, which i think is making our european allies a little bit nervous about what that deal will potentially entail. host: if that's not enough for the "washington examiner" to cover come anything else you and your colleagues are watching for this week? guest: i'm watching this meeting on thursday or this dinner on

thursday for the investors in the president's meme coin. we seen ethics or conflicts of interest, concern particularly after the revelation that they qataris have offered to donate a $400 million jet to this white house, so his merging of business interests and politics come together. basically there is a dinner at his golf club later this week. there are foreign guests on that guest list. that is something that, you know, will earn criticism from both republicans and democrats. host: washingtonexaminer.com is where you can go to read naomi lim's story. we appreciate you starting your week with us on "washington journal." back to your calls in open

forum, any public policy, political issue you want to talk about. this is don in pennsylvania, jeanette, pennsylvania. thanks for waiting. caller: good morning, john. first of all, i like to start off by saying in your first segment of open forum, you had a lady from virginia, i believe her name was danielle, and she expressed a lot of my views that i share. i think she was very spot on on some of her comments that she made. and a follow-up to that -- host: don, for folks who did not watch that segment, what comments are you talking about? caller: i was talking about what she was talking about how the program had democrats and republicans constantly attacking each other, and they need to show more respect towards each other. and i agree with that 100%.

the second purpose of my call is on going to start calling you guys, and i'm going to see if the way i feel can get that turned around, and i'm going to make my calls more about fun and educational things. i think that is something that can benefit everybody. maybe they will learn something, and we might be able to have a little fun instead of everybody wanting to put down each other, democrats wanting to put down republicans and vice versa. so with that, i would like to say, let's talk civilly to each other. let's get more enjoyment out of the program. and maybe we can learn something from the program. host: don, in 30 seconds, give me an educational thing you think would be fun to talk about. caller: i will give you one specifically to the month of may, since we are in may. this is just a fun fact.

i enjoy presidential history, so for you and your viewers today, we have only had two presidents born in the month of may, and that is harry truman and john f. kennedy, which were only separated by eisenhower. but we have not had any deaths in the month of may of any president. it is the only month where there has never been a presidential death. host: huh. what's the month that has the most presidential births and the most presidential deaths, or am i getting ahead of your research here, don? caller: you're not getting ahead of it, but it will be a strong guess. i believe july is the most for presidential deaths, and i believe september is the most for presidential births. host: don, appreciate a call from jeannette, pennsylvania. have a good day. caller: thank you, don. i appreciate. and i always like when you are on. you are one of my favorites. host: bob in arlington, texas,

independent. it is open forum for a few more minutes here. caller: yeah. john, i appreciate it. coming up on memorial day, and one thing that always ticked me off about your calls on memorial day, everybody always says "happy memorial day." well, it ain't so happy. happy maybe for some people, but for those who lost people in the wars, overseas, don't celebrate. we really are sad to be reminded of what these people have done before us. host: bob, how many family members do you have that have served this country? caller: my brother died in korea. it was 1952. host: what was his name, bob?

caller: billy. host: and you will be thinking about billy on memorial day? caller: yeah. in the whole family got hit with a chinese sniper. he was due to come home within a couple of weeks, and they got them. host: how old was billy, bob? caller: he was 21. host: bob, thank you for telling us about billy. susie, ohio, republican. good morning. caller: yes, i've been listening for a welcome and i kept hearing people call in, you know, wanting to know how much the illegal aliens are costing our country, so i looked up -- they had a house budget committee meeting on may 8, 2024. it was called the cost of the

border crisis, ran by arrington from texas. they had a girl, julie kershner, who worked for f.a.i.r., federation for american reform, tax immigration. they figure joe biden, letting all these illegals in here, it cost $182 billion annually. they said that is conservative, from joe biden's mass immigration. they only did about $31 billion from the illegal aliens. that's only 70% of the cost that they create. the first burden is illegal aliens usually have low income, they pay very little in taxes. second, they incur significant costs to the taxpayers on a daily basis and public services such as policing, k-12

education, emergency services, and they receive benefits illegally from federal, state, and local jurisdictions, despite the fact that they have legal status. there's a lot more i could say, but one thing i did find through this article was, and this is all in congress, you know, if you look at their minutes. when joe biden put the tps in, that's temporary protected status, shut down all deportations the first day of his administration, nobody was being deported, no matter what kind of crime they committed. these people, after five years, can end up getting all the services that the citizens of the united states get.

social security, the child tax credit, just anything that we can get, they can get in five years. host: that is susie in ohio. just a few minutes left in open forum, taking your calls on any public policy topic. we mentioned just a few moments ago with our discussion about the week ahead at the white house, the ongoing efforts to achieve a peace deal between ukraine and russia. it was just moments ago that vice president jd vance spoke with reporters during his travel back from the vatican. he mentioned the ongoing negotiations between vladimir putin and volodymyr zelenskyy. this is from earlier this morning. [video clip] vp vance: like i said, we are more than open to walking away. the president is supposed to talk to the president of russia and president zelenskyy as well. i'm sure he will talk to other world leaders, because he always

does that. we've been clear, we want to see outcomes. the first major outcome we see is we want the ukrainians to put a big piece on the table. what would you need to do to stop fighting? the second is they need to have talks with one another. that has not happened in years. that has now happened. the talks preceding for a while, we realize there is a bit of an impact here. i think the president is going to say, to president putin, look, are you serious? there are a lot of economic benefits to stalling relations between russia and the rest of the world, but you are not going to get those benefits if you keep on killing a lot of innocent people. if you stop the killing, the united states will be a partner for peace. that has been a proposal for the russians, ukrainians, and other hotspots around the world you will not prejudge the president was a conversation. i actually was just on the phone with him. he's looking forward to it. i think he is the right guy to negotiate for the country, and i'm excited about it.

host: vice president jd vance from a few minutes ago. back to your phone close, just a couple minutes left in open forum. this is henry in alabama, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. my take on this is, if president trump wants this 400 million dollar airplane from qatar, ask qatar to donate the thing to the united states, not to president truman -- i mean, i'm sorry, president trump. that is my take. host: that is henry in alabama. one more call here, debbie in the show me state, missouri, republican. good morning. caller: the plane from qatar is going to our military, but trump will be able to use it.

and i think he should take it. and i want to talk about the symbol of the 8647. it is a direct threat to kill the president. mobs and mafia have been using it since bef the depression, and advanced 80 miles out of town and six feet under. so anybody with a hat or a sign ought to be treated by the fbi as a threat to the president. and the symbols on the maryland man's hand were a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, and a 13, that means ms-13, m for marijuana, s for smiley face, and 13. and comey ought to be put in

prison for giving that show picture that he took and posted. host: get your point, debbie. that is debbie in missouri from our last caller in open forum. stick around, about 45 minutes left in our program today. in that time, we will be joined by virginia kase solomón of the group common cause. we will talk about the qatari plane and other potential conflicts of interest. stick around. we will be right back. ♪ brian: ernest played ivy league football at columbia university and was in the old brooklyn dodgers nfl franchise before becoming a city hall lawyer, and a brain trust aide to president franklin roosevelt hit on the

payroll of national radio columnist walter winchell, he mingled with elite, but has set up as a spy remained a secret, hiding in plain sight. all of this is the way hanover square press introduces readers to thomas maier's book, "the invisible spy." >> this episode of booknotes+ with our host brian lamb. booknotes+ is available wherever you get your podcasts and on the free c-span now app. >> looking to contact your members of congress? c-span is making it easy for you with our 2020 directory. get essential contact information for government officials all in one place. this compact, spiral-bound guide contains vital information for

every house and senate member of the 119th congress. contact information on congressional committees, the president's cabinet, federal agencies, and state governors. the congressional directory costs $32.95 plus shipping and handling, and every purchase helps support c-span's nonprofit operations. scan the code on the right or go to c-spanshop.org to order your copy today. ♪ >> democracy. it is not just an idea, it's a process, a process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few to broaden its basic principles. it's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. democracy in real time. this is your government at work. this is c-span, giving you your democracy unfiltered. ♪

>> "washington journal" continues. host: virginia kase solomón joins us now. she serves as the president and ceo of common cause, an organization whose mission is what? guest: well, we hold power accountable. that is our role could we serve as a watchdog for governments. we also really support everyday individuals in making sure that their voices are heard in government across the country come both at the federal level, local, state, you name it. host: how do you hold power accountable, and how long have you been around? guest: we've been around for 19th -- since 1970. for 55 years now almost we been doing this work. the way we hold government accountable is working with state legislatures, working with the federal government, looking at what the ethics rules are and what exists in the local, state,

and federal legislatures, to make sure that they are abiding by these rules. in addition to that, we work very closely with people at the community level, to make sure that government leaders are not engage in any kind of drifting, right? we want to make sure that everyday people have trust in the elected officials they have come and one of the biggest challenges we have is people don't participate in government cynically if they don't trust the leadership elected. host: when of your positions is to block president trump from accepting that qatari luxury plane. why are you doing this, and what can congress do about it? guest: there are a lot of reasons, but first, there's a new plane being built. boeing has taken on the contract to do that. it is set up to all the specific specifications that would be required from a security standpoint. so taking a new plane on, not only in addition to the fact that it just really looks bad

from an optics standpoint, it is an ethical conflict, we believe, but the amount of money it would cost taxpayers to be able to get that plane up to speed, from a security standpoint, from our government, would cost about $1 billion, according to the most recent numbers we've seen. so free is not free. you get a free $400 million plane that would still basically need to be stripped down to the nuts and bolts of it to make sure it is safe for any elected leader. how was that saving money? that is not a gift, number one. number two, it just looks really bad. i mean, from an ethics standpoint, george bush could not take a dog when he was president without going through all kinds of ethics and compliance rules. this is a $400 plane. host: so what can congress do to stop this, if they want to? guest: because of the emoluments clause, congress does not need to approve it. if they wanted to, they actually

could say, we do not approve this, we will not allow this gift to be accepted. the concern right now is that congress is not doing anything, at least on the people who are in the majority who could hold him accountable. i would add that there was a review done by pam bondi, who is the attorney general, but she was getting $100,000 a month while in service of this government who is gifting this plane to president trump, prior to her becoming attorney general. so the conflicts and the optics on this are really terrible. host: in the constitution, article one, section nine, clause 8 is the emoluments clause clause. no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall without the consent of congress except any present, and molly may come office, or title from any kind whatever from any

king, prince, or otherwise. to vote, how does both the senate and house vote on, and what can they do it anyway? guest: so here is the thing, this is not a usual administration as far as adhering to laws and ethics. i want to name at first. what should be happening is, yes, it should go through congressional approval. will it actually happen, and will we see that at some point is another question, and that is why it so concerning right now, because we seen so many rules and guidelines and norms that have been bypassed. so i would say, yes, it should go through congressional. the concern is, are there loopholes for attending to just bypass these things? and do it anyway? so, yes, there should be

congressional approval, yes, it should be going through the house. they should be looking at this. the question is, will it happen? what we are concerned about is what is coming out of many elected leaders on the hill right now who are afraid to speak up. one recently said, "we are afraid to." so, rules are supposed to apply. does not feel like they this thoroughly are. host: treasury secretary scott bessent was on "state of the union" yesterday. here's what he had to say. [video clip] sec. bessent: nobody in the middle east or anywhere in the world just gives $400 million away. i don't know, the french gave us the statue of liberty. i'm not sure they asked for anything in advance. in the more important airplane deal, there was $100 billion of orders that went from qatari airlines to boeing.

the ceo of boeing was with us in the middle east. this is the biggest order in the country's -- the company's history. i think that plane deal is much more important than this other one. >> i will just say about the statue of liberty come it was authorized by congress commander belongs to the american people, not whoever was president at the time. sec. bessent: well, i think this plane belongs to the american government. host: virginia kase solomón, your response? guest: that's disconcerting. congress authorized the statue of liberty, which is still sitting in new york right now, to this day. it was a gift to the american people. it was not a gift to an american president. the president was not hold up on ellis island or, you know, sitting in the statue of liberty. it is frustrating, because it is

a twist, in my opinion, and in ethics watchdog opinions, that you could even conflate the two. we are talking about a jet that will be used for personal reasons when there's a perfectly good -- there's nothing wrong with air force one right now. maybe it's not as updated, it's a little bit older than he would like, but by all means, there's nothing wrong with it. and he has said that it will go to his presidential library afterwards. again, it is such a twist on reality. and at the end of the day, business is business, and i get, right? but it should not be a print quote quote -- quid pro quo situation that we are facing, where cutter says, we will get all of these contracts, but we will also give you a free plane out of this gig. that is really wrong and it stinks. i will just say this, you know, there was so much conversation

from this president and from the administration, many administration officials, about "draining the swamp," and i feel like we just dumped a bunch of alligators and crocodiles in the swamp and said hey, guess what, we drained it, but we've got new visitors here. it is just very nasty and mucky. host: virginia kase solomón is our guest, ceo of common cause. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. about half an hour left in our program. get your calls in. what is your view on the donald trump meme coin? guest: again, this family has enriched itself beyond memes.

previous presidents have always had an ethics executive order. there was never one. there was an executive pledged that was signed to have an outside counsel review ethics. there you go once again, a total of $2.9 billion coming into office that we have seen, just an exorbitant amount of money. it's hard to put into words, because this is not the kind of thing that we've ever seen before? . i think what is concerning here is not only that the family of the president are making just ridiculous amounts of money, but it is at the cost of the american taxpayer. what i mean by that is, we are talking about, they were just getting ready to have legislation that would have potentially started cryptocurrency, kind of a national reserve for cryptocurrency.

that actually got pulled by republicans, because they were concerned that this was a bad look. the president himself is actually raising alarm bells, not only with democrats but with republicans in the house and the senate. and although they will not say it out loud, this is what we are hearing behind closed doors. but they are very concerned about what they are seeing. host: you mentioned you had some concerns in the previous administration. let me anticipate some callers' questions. why did common cause raise the red flag on in the previous administration? is there a way to make comparisons between what you are talking about? guest: yeah. before it was with his hotel, for example, the trump hotel on pennsylvania avenue, and you would see businessmen coming in, and people would need to kind of kiss the ring in order to be

able to get a meeting with the president or meet with administration officials. so a lot of people were put toward the hotel. now it goes to mar-a-lago, for example, you go to mar-a-lago, and you get a lot of direct access to trump and his family and other people who are in his ecosystem. and that is a direct line to the president that people will have. that's no different whether it is in florida or here. when it comes to some of his business practices, what we are seeing is direct benefit to donald trump and his family, and they may not pay immediate dividends. it might not all be happening right now, but after the fact, we saw jared kushner being able to receive really big gifts from the saudi government. we've seen his family now, with the qatari government, being able to make really strong business deals that will benefit them into the future. these things have not changed. host: over the things that you

raise the red flags about during the biden administration, and how to those compared to what you were just talking about? guest: so we did not have the same ethics concerns from the financial standpoint. we did have a lot of concerns about hunter biden and his interactions and what was happening with his financial dealings and really getting into trying to understand whether or not the president was actually involved. and what we found during that is as a father, yes, he was very involved in providing support to his son, emotional support. he was also not financially involved. so there was, you know, a president's whose son was making poor choices versus the situation now, but the president not being directly involved in his son's financial dealings, versus the whole family involved now. it is a whole different situation. common cause has filed all kinds of ethics lawsuits and investigations.

they in turn of ours discovered the hush money payment and conflict. these are the kinds of things we tend to focus on, but ultimately, what we are saying is, whether it is a democrat or a republican, it is not about right or left, it is about right and wrong, and the american people, they are feeling bad right now when they see all of this happening, and we talk about the cuts to medicaid. as we look at it, it is about not what is good for any political party or politician, it's what's good for the american people and what makes american people have trust in their government. host: commoncause.org, if you want to check out their work. plenty of caller are waiting to chat with you. this is deborah on the line for democrats. go ahead. caller: hello? well, my comments, i think everything that the trump administration has been doing, i

think back on the mccarthy era, and with the quote, and i'm reading it from, "until this moment, senator, i think i never gave your cruelty or your recklessness, have you no sense of decency, sir? at long last, have you no sense of decency?" that was what started to change things during that era when mccarthy had so much power. and the problem today, i believe, is that there are too many republicans who have no sense of decency. they are going after progressive values, and they seem to forget what the united states, how we began i what we really stand

for. so i agree with everything common cause is doing, and i appreciate that. host: virginia kase solomón? guest: thank you. i think that is the thing that is missing in all of this. our country, at its core, is, i think, comprised of really good people who want to be able to have good lives. we also went decency and kindness in our politics. and while politics are messy and it is nasty, and we should be able to have policy debates, what we are seeing right now has gone beyond any kind of norm. the attacks on american people, american values is what is really concerning, and we are seeing this play out through a lot of these ethics challenges with this administration. it cannot be, "what's good for me, as the president, cannot be good for you as the american people." we cannot take a $400 million airplane but yet at the same

time we are seeing a ridiculous amount of cuts to medicaid, for example, that will harm a lot of vulnerable people. so this is all, you know, again, going back to the idea of decency, have you no decency? host: to john in california. republican. good morning. thank you for waiting. caller: good morning. i do believe that we need a lot more watchdogs and like that. i love the way you watch the way you watch the biden administration and his sons, going of gathering around -- going around the world and gathering funds, i don't think there's any conclusion that joe biden did not profit from his son's corruption. i wonder what you think about the $2 billion that was given to this organization that was called together in 30 seconds by stacey abrams that went out of the government? yeah. there will be cuts to medicaid.

what they want to cut are the -- is the rampant corruption. you have had politico on this morning, you had the man, the has been manager of the office of management and budget that came on to do nothing but belittle trunk, and now you have this lady from common cause, which is a very left-wing organization. i don't want trump to take the darned airplane. i think it is bad optics. but by the same token, i want some equality when it comes to criticism. and joe biden, his health and mental problems, to what his son did and what other people in his administration did come and for you to sit there and say, oh, this is outside the norms. the norms, 36 trillion dollars,

almost $37 trillion in debt. what about the clintons and the clinton foundation? literally billions of dollars around the world when bill clinton was president. host: you bring up a lot of points, john. let's get virginia kase solomón a chance to respond. guest: yeah. what i would say is, again, going back to it is not about right and left, it's about right and wrong. common cause, we have not changed our value speed we were actually founded by republican in 1970. a lot of people don't know that. so what i would say is, when it has come to speaking out against whether it is a republican administration, democratic

administrations, common cause is actually done that. we have both sides of the aisle pretty angry with us all the time. when you talk about left-leaning, our values have not changed over the past 55 years. the political ecosystem has. so we always stand on behalf of voters. we are nonpartisan. we don't support or endorse candidates or political parties, but we do identify we we see wrongs, and we call it like we see it. if we are talking about specifically saying we are going back in history, and you can go back as far as you want. host: he brought up the clinton foundation. was common cause concerned about money taken in by the clinton foundation when hillary clinton was secretary of state? guest: i was not at common cause at that time, so i cannot speak specifically to the work that common cause did around that, but what i can say is this -- if there is a commitment from the administration saying, moving forward, we are going to do x, we are going to drain the swamp,

what will we say that moving forward, instead of saying, "well, they did it, too," let's turn over a new leaf. let's start on any page and say, moving forward, we will do what you want, because that is the promise to the american people. no different than joe biden, no different than the clintons, whoever you want to point back to. there is this constant turn in washington where there's finger-pointing going like this, with both sides pointing at each other, at some point, somebody has to be the adult in the room and say enough is enough. this has to stop. host: you mentioned the stormy daniels hush-money payments, that that was a common cause investigation. what are some other common cause investigations, ethics complaints you filed, that viewers words with no going back into history? guest: so common cause have been working on ethics spending since watergate come honestly.

there are tons of investigations that came out of watergate could we just celebrated the federal elections commission at 50, that turned 50 years old. that was actually born out of watergate, and that was one of the things common cause helped set up. going back to the iran-contra affair, you name it. there are many times when common cause has looked into these ethics investigations. host: how do you find common cause? how do you find the work you do? guest: we raise small dollars from donors across the country, with her five dollars, $10, $25. we also have money from foundations and philanthropy. we take a zero business dollars, we take zero federal money. the reason we do that is we want to make sure we can maintain that nonpartisanship. we work with republicans and democrats. we are in all 50 states, in every congressional district.

host: florida, independent, thank you for waiting. caller: you are very welcome, and thank you for letting me speak. i would like to ask her how she enjoys flying on airplanes that go all the way back to where they started? and i don't like it. i don't like the fact that all of our, even commercial planes, or so old, until my children are younger than that. host: so, barbara, bring it to the ethics issues we are talking about right now. caller: it's about the airplane that was given, and the arabs have given us more contracts for arms and things over the years then you can probably name any

other country. host: you are ok with the gift, barbara? you are ok with the gift of the plane? caller: i'm not. i'm very ok taking the plane, because it is for the united states of america, it is not for the president, no matter who he is. but i happen to like most of the things this one is doing. i happen to be 82 years old, and i've always listened to politics. and, frankly, he's doing a pretty freaking good job. i don't mean he's great, i don't mean he's terrible, he's neither one. he's doing the best he can to do what he can. host: barbara, let me take your point and allow virginia kase solomón to respond. guest: i would just say, going back to what i said earlier, a $400 million gift of an airplane that will cost nearly $1 billion

to bring it down, strip it down to the nuts and the boats, basically to make sure, from a security standpoint, that the president is safe to fly in that plane, number one. in number two, that our national security and national secrets would be protected while on that plane. the math is not mathing when it comes to that. why would you spend the additional amount of money? it is going to cost us more, it's going to cost taxpayers more coming a that is something that can be used, again, for medicaid or protecting social security. talking about aviation, right now now, the faa is broken. air traffic controllers are at the highest levels of stress. i'm more worried about getting on a plane, as most americans are, when we are hearing of all of the issues we are seeing with air traffic control than i'm worried about the actual planes themselves. host: less than 15 minutes left this morning.

on a different topic, i want to ask you your view on members of congress making stock market trades and managing their portfolios as they are making laws. guest: yeah. absolutely, we are 100% in support of bands on stock training for members of congress and their family members. it makes absolutely no sense. the rest of the world and the private sector in civil society have 401k's or 403 b's, right? they invest in portfolios like normal folks. you should not be able to have insider information about what is happening, potentially, run different stocks and then be able to go and trade those stocks accordingly. so we are very serious when it comes to that issue, and we are 100 percent in support of a stock trading ban. host: what are you doing about

this? guest: we are lobbying on these issues, and we have been for a long time kid we are currently looking at the pelosi act that senator hawley has put into place. host: does that seem like a good solution? guest: well, the devils are always in the details. i do not necessarily like naming legislation after somebody unless it is honoring somebody come up personally, but i think the components of a come of the legislation itself, actually makes sense. what i will say is there are lots of pieces of legislation in introduced in the past that have not made it through. one of the things you need to be reminded of is that the lobby industry in this town is huge. there is still a disproportionate amount of influence that they have, and i think that is why we are seeing some of these challenges, because they want their stocks to be able to be traded, they

want to go in, whether it is big oil, big aggro, you name it, big pharma, crypto, you want to be able to go in and have that access. the people who will go in and vote on your behalf, there's a lot of influence. we always follow the money trail. host: it's interesting, your concerns about the lobbyist. you say you are lobbying on this issue. do you consider what you do a form of lobbying? guest: i think we do advocacy, and that is one of the things that is important. you have to register as a lobbyist in order to be with legislators on capitol hill. again, we are 5013 c, 501 c4 organization, so we are a tax exempt. we don't take in a big corporate money to get what we do on behalf of the american people, we consider our work advocacy. host: in new york, a democrat, good morning. go ahead. caller: good morning, john. please let me elaborate on a few

things. just because you cut me off over a month ago when i was about to talk about offshore accounts. host: just jump into it. just go for it. caller: ok. yeah. offshore accounts, but, so, ok, so, let me just make it very simple. i agree with the woman that you have on. i can't hear what you are saying because i muted my tv, so i agree with the woman, what she is saying. i want to make something very clear that is bothering me, and that is, i watch a lot of news, and a lot of good news -- pbs, your program, bbc -- i don't watch fox. and i can always tell the people that are watching fox when they called in. host: get to the issue that you

want to get to. caller: i want to say something about the airplane. the reason i brought up the news programs is because i don't see anybody talking about the fact that trump wants to fix this airplane. it's going to take a couple of years, and then it is his. i mean, it is clear as day that this plane is his gift. host: got your point. you are making the point earlier, the amount of money will it cost to fix this airplane. guest: the amount of money will cost the american taxpayers. and if we are talking about huge deficits, our credit rating has been recently downgraded here there's a lot of uncertainty around our economy. why would you take something like this on, knowing that it just looks horrible, horrible, not only to us, as taxpayers and as people who live in this country, but to other countries. host: are you doing a risk count, as it were, on who has

come out against this and whether it has the vote, if it went through congress, to get it approved? guest: our staffers are looking at it right now. i just got back from vacation, but i will tell you that they are looking at it. host: kim in michigan, a republican. you are next. caller:hi, good morning. yeah. it is quite interesting, how, for the last 58 years that i've been around, we have talked about the same stuff every day. things seem to never get better, but we always blame each other to whatever. the people out here in the actual real world they go to work and pay their bills, we are talking about billions and trillions and all this stuff, every day, it is so funny that,

it is not even make sense to us, because when we go eat or when we go buy a car that is not even worth -- i worked in the car plan for 30 years. i don't understand how we get this trillions of dollars. who cares about is you get the jet? and brings it back here and flies it around. he's going to do it anyway. he's going to do it as a businessman. host: that is 10 in michigan. speaking about president trump and what he said about this? the previous ethics concerns that have been brought up. he previously said, a president cannot have a conflict of interest. what is your view on that. can a president have a conflict of interest? guest: absolutely. anybody can have a conflict of interest. i want to go back to what the previous caller said, you know, this has been happening for a very long time coming is 58

years of life, this is what he has seen. and that is what is concerning, we have normalized things that should not be normal. we have said these corrections are ok, these ethical concerns are ok, because everybody does it. that is what is concerning. that is not normal in a healthy, functioning government. issue not be ok if it's a democrat, it should not be ok if it is a republican. and i think what this president is doing is just raising the bar for people's tolerance to be able to accept corruption on ethical issues and say, well, i'm the president. he cannot have any ethical conflicts. and quite frankly, he's never been held accountable, so at the end of the day, people are going to be like, "eh." that is what is really concerning and sad at this moment. host: charles in indiana, and independent. good morning. caller: good morning.

to your guest, man, i cannot agree with you more. i'm retired military, and i thought for the constitution of this country. therefore, i can't agree with this president taking a gift of that plane. i won't repeat anything that you said about the cost to refit it, but to the caller in california, i'm independent. i cannot understand why we allow our jobs to go -- laws to go down in the ground, but if it is a "businessman," it's ok. corruption, his family benefiting from what he's doing, i mean, it should be the same. his sons benefited from it, the golf courses, his whole family benefiting. nobody is talking about kushner and the last administration.

kushner got millions or billions of dollars for him and his daughter. but that is ok, because he's a "businessman." according to some people, it is ok. well, it is not ok, and i do not serve this country and fight for this country for this to be ok. especially when medicare, my mom is on medicare, her social security and medicaid is being threatened, because he wants to cut it. they don't need medicare, they don't need social security, they've got money. but i guess the country does not care about that. host: i will give you the final minute here. guest: thanks, paul. i think one of the things we want to be reminded of is when we think about what our country means in this moment, we are looking for us to be able to continue to have people thrive in this country, to be able to do simple things like go to

work, make sure you know you can pay your rent, that you could buy food in the grocery store, that you can take care of your family, and know that when you retire, there will be a little something in place. people should not have to be distracted, and the legislator -- legislature should not have to be distracted about all of this outside noise. these are distractions, getting in the people's business demand we seen these types of ethical concerns, whether republicans or democrats. would you be ok with the previous president doing the same thing? or are you just ok because it is donald trump? if biden was in office, where are you ok with the things that he did because he was biden or because he was in the trunk? you have to go back to looking specifically at the issues and apply everything fairly across-the-board, and there has to be a restart of this country at some point, or else we are

going to continue along this partisan divide that does not help us drive our country forward. in fact, a further divide us. host: virginia kase solomón is president and ceo of common cause. you can check out their work at commoncause.org. we appreciate the time. guest: thank you so much. host: that is going to do it for us today on our program. a reminder for viewers this afternoon at 1:30 p.m. eastern time, a conference on public transportation, the transportation secretary sean duffy will be there along with members of congress. that is on c-span, today at 1:30 p.m. eastern it also at 6:00 p.m. eastern time today, a discussion on military defense strategy on the council on foreign relations. you can watch that live on c-span. in the meantime, the house is in at noon today at 3:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch them respectively here on c-span and c-span2. we we hope you join us again tomorrow morning back here on

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