just a moment ago charles grassley was speaking to the students here. as a way of introduction, charles grassley, ranking republican and member of the agriculture committee, thank you for your time. brandon has the very first question. caller: good morning. my question is -- what are the primary reasons for the health care debate? guest: there are two primary reasons. first, that everyone has access ability the health care insurance. generally given by people with lower incomes to subsidize health insurance, making sure that the discrimination coming from united healthcare in pre- existing conditions can do away with it. so, affordability and accessibility, for the 47 million people that have no health insurance today. you could break that down into smaller groups. . host: a new report by the congressional budget office says that for most americans, this plan will keep their premiums at the same level or a reduced level. do you trust the numbers? guest: you have to trust cbo. in the city, they are like god. if you do not believe them, it takes a super v

we've seen it with charles grassley. seen it with senator demint who said he wished he had told the president, you lied. that's the greatest danger. >> governor k he hadane mentioned at the federal level in 2009 they won 5 of 5 elections and gained two senators with specter and al franken. are the republicans, though, are any of the republicans scared about this or are all of them regretting that they won't the joe wilson, as you said? >> well, david, unfortunately, what governor keene said is half the story. the other half the bad news for the democrats which is losing virginia, losing new jersey, losing the enthusiasm quosh enlt which is so important in elections because there's more enthusiasm and passion right now on the republican side than on the democratic. and just as important is what's happening with independents. first of all, the rise of independents and secondly, the fact that a independents are now favoring republicans over democrats. so there are many problems for both parties. and what is happening more a

senator charles grassley has logged seven hours, 52 minutes. senator dick durbin, 7 hours 53 minutes. host: linda in bethesda, maryland, you are opposed to the senate health care bill, why? caller: good morning. i apologize for my laryngitis. i feel that this bill will eventually kill of innovation in medical research in the united states once we go down this slippery slope. the government will pay for more and more. we already know that nih grants are down. doctors and people considering going to health care, the bright ones will not go in because all the market incentives will be gone very medical schools are very expensive and i see this as a slippery slope into a government run health care eventually because that is what legislation does once you get it done. host: what kind of health care do you have? caller: have healthcare with an employer. i am happy with it but under this bill, our health care will be very much tact. we will be paying extra tax. we already pay a lot of tax. host: it is a -- is a so-called cadillac plan? caller: no, but

depending on whether you have a job and where your job is that, the charles grassley is saying -- the cbo is saying that it could go up or down a bit. so, this is something that will use by both parties in the debate. host: for the next 20 minutes, what do they want from the health care bill that will ultimately come out of congress? what is it in this health care bill did you think of first when you hear about this debate and what do you want, ultimately, in a bill? what have you heard about the major sticking points being resolved? guest: there are several of them. the legal immigratn@@@@@@@ the house passed version is more to liking the republicans and pro-rights groups. the senate bill, senator orrin hatch, republican from utah, he will be looking to amend the bill to make it closer to the house-passed version, a lot of liberals in the house were not pleased with the so-called stupak amendment that passed right before the overall underlying house health care bill passed. there are so many provision that is are going to be difficult. you have different ways to pay for it. you have

you were hearing senator charles grassley as he was talking to some of the students here as a way of introduction. there are about 200 students, high school students spending their week many for the first time in washington, d.c., and senator grassley, the ranking republican on the budget and agriculture committee, we appreciate your time. >> glad to be with you. >> brandon keyes is one of the students, ask and we're going -- and we're going to turn to him with the very first question. >> good morning, senator, i'm brandon keyes from dallas, texas. my question is what is the primary reason for the health care debate? >> the primary reason for the health care debate would be two. one, to make sure that everybody has accessibility to health insurance and the care that goes with it, and the second one is that it be affordable. accessibility is generally given by people that have lower incomes to subsidize the buying of health insurance and to make sure that the discrimination that comes through people being denied health care because of pre-existing conditions to do away with it. and so

grassley of iowa. we will look ahead to president obama speech on afghanistan with democratic representative gerry connolly, a member of the foreign affairs committee, and thomas ricks, a former military correspondent for the "washington post." "washington journal" is live every day at 7:00 a.m. ms. stern hear on c-span. >> a couple of live events to tell you about tomorrow. the senate commerce subcommittee on aviation looks into airline pilot fatigue hear on c-span at 10:15 a.m. eastern. the senate intelligence committee considers pending nominations at the departments of state and homeland security. you can see that on c-span3 at 2:30 p.m. eastern. >> free-lance journalist david axe was recently embedded with u.s. troops in afghanistan. in this 40 minute interview, we'll talk with them about his experience in the u.s. army and air force. this was his second trip to afghanistan. >> my first trip was for -- -- was to the province in the south. on this trip i wanted to go back to the south and see if i

grassley of iowa. we will look ahead to president obama speech on afghanistan with gerry connolly, a member of the foreign affairs committee and a former military correspondent for "the washington post". "washington journal" is live on c-span every day. a couple of live events to tell you about tomorrow. the senate commerce subcommittee on aviation looks into airline pilot fatigue. that is on c-span at 10:15 a.m. eastern. then the senate intelligence committee considers the pending nominations at the departments of state and hall and security. you can see that on c-span-3 at 2:30 p.m. eastern. >> free-lance journalist david axe was embedded with u.s. troops in afghanistan. in this interview, we talked about his experience with the u.s. army and air force. this is his second trip to afghanistan. >> my first trip was near kandahar about to be zero years ago. i wanted to go back to the south and see if i could detect progress or see if things had gotten worse, but also to explore new areas of afghanistan

senator charles grassley talked- about tax increases in health- care. the tax increases in the house bill, unlike the senate bill, is essentially on millionaires. a family has to earn $1 million or more before any surtax charged 6 in. -- before any surtax charged kicks in. we thought that was a fair way to pay for taxes. previously the threshold had been much lower. we' led the revolt to try to make sure the least amount of folks in america would be affected. host: we have a lot of students from louisiana and texas. our next few were is walter from louisiana. caller: i have a statement and then a question for this gentleman. and for the students in the audience. i find it unconscionable and hard to believe that any group of suppose it learned individuals in the government body can be so naive and dumb for so long. you mentioned that the taliban needs to be stopped. what right do we have to be telling another country who they can be governed by? second, the taliban had nothing to do with 9/11. as a matter of fact, i doubt seriously that the cia creation