host: good morning. it is sunday, may 11, 2025. house republicans released an early version of the gop's major tax bill. but how to pay for it? president trump briefly floated the idea of raising taxes on the wealthy but then said the gop probably should not. we want to know what you think.

democrats should call in at (202) 748-8000. republicans at (202) 748-8001. independents at (202) 748-8002. if you like to text us, that number is (202) 748-8003. please be sure to include your name and where you are calling in from. you can also find us on social media at facebook.com/cspan and on x at @cspanwj. politico has more details about what we know about this portion of the tax bill legislation language that republicans released friday. republicans' personal tax plan estimated to cost $5 trillion. an early version of the tax plan would cost nearly $5 trillion, according to a new estimate. the cost exceeds the budget resolution earlier this year, which set parameters for the massive package of tax cuts and

extensions, energy policy, and border security investment the party wants to pass in the coming weeks. the estimate released by the joint committee on taxation also underscores how much hinges on the final details of the plan, which are likely to be unveiled monday afternoon ahead of a scheduled tuesday markup by the house ways and means committee chaired by rep. j. smith:, a republican -- jason smith, a republican from missouri. one of the ways they considered is raising taxes on the wealthy appear in this was laid out in an article with a headline, the gop should probably not raise taxes on the rich hearing that article says, the white house had put forward a proposal to allow the top marginal income tax rate cut that trump signed into law in 2017 t expire at the end of the year for the highest income americans, which

would increase the tax rate fo those individuals from 37% to 39 the rest of the 2017 tax cuts would be extended. while the top tax bracket for 2024 applied to incomes higher than $609,351 for single filers, and over 700,000 dollars for joint filers, a new rate would apply to those with incomes greater than 2.5 millionor single filers or $5 million for joint filers, according to one source with knowledge of the pitch. after pushback, president trump posted on true social, the problem with even a tiny tax increase for the rich, which i and others would accept to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the radical left democrat lunatics would go around screaming, read my lips,

the quote by george bush the elder that is said to have cost him the election. republicans should probably not do it, but i'm ok if they do. president trump was asked about the truth social post in the oval office with reporters friday. here is the exchange. >> the possibility of an increase in taxes on wealthier americans. what do you say to conservative republicans who argue this is an increase on small business owners? >> if we did that, it would only be, from what i hear -- i would love to do it, but what we will do is they will go around saying this is so terrible. would you do it? you are giving up something up top to make people in the middle on, and lower income brackets save more. it is really a redistribution and i am willing to do it if

they want. i would love to be able to give people a lower bracket a big break by giving up some of what i have put a lot people say do not do it because you have the bush statement about read my lips, but he lost because of ross perot. he did not lose because of that statement. i do not think they are going to be doing it, but i think it is good politics to do it, where richer people give up -- it is very small cut like a point. but they give it up to benefit people of lower income. host: before we get to your calls on what you think of these policy ideas, let's look to pulling related to taxes in america, this one finding that americans' view of federal income taxes they pay cut 59% think their taxes are too high. 38% think they are about right. 2% think the taxes they pay are too low. when you break it down by group,

58% say lower income people pay too much in taxes. 54% say middle income pple pay too much in taxes and 58% say up her income people pay too much -- too little -- upper income people pay too little in taxes. we will start with gregory on our line for democrats. caller: absolutely the rich should pay more. the people who already have most of the money and are damaged more by everything in the modern world, including the tax structure of the united states, the people who get the most on the most. they are living high and mighty. it is almost like the trump administration and republican party are this big broadcasting tower of misery, shooting out

everything that makes health care harder and food harder and houses harder. education harder. here we are in the last few decades that we can save a semblance of the natural earth that has been around for such a long time. we need to spend money on things like clean energy research so we do not have to pull even more from the ground and filled the atmosphere with more heat trapping gases. we should be doing everything the republicans are trying not to do and doing virtually nothing of the stuff they are doing, starting trade wars, defunding everything that makes life better for people. like the living world is divided into the animal kingdom at the plant kingdom, it is like capitalism and commercial activity in the animal kingdom while government gets public service and the public sector are like the plant kingdom that

divides the ecosystem services, the oxygen and water and air. planet earth itself that makes the human enterprise possible. that is the way to see it. we are ripping up the plants. host: quite a few americans agree with you on raising taxes on the rich. here's some numbers from the pew research center about six in 10 americans say that those taxes on incomes over $400,000 should be raised, including 23% to say these tax rates should be raised a lot. much smaller shares say taxes on higher incomes should be lower. that is 19%. or kept the same, 21%. as has been the case in recent years, views differed by party. democrats are overwhelmingly supportive of raising taxes on these groups while republicans are more divided. let's hear from jenny in ohio on

our line for republicans. caller: all that stuff you are reading -- about all those taxes -- you keep reading -- it is not your fault but everything your reading does not make any sense. you know what? we have to have a certain amount of rich people in order for people to be employed. i do not know why we are always blooming the rich people. there are probably a lot of people that do have a lot of money. they just do not want everybody to know that. host: the tax legislation and pending legislation is complicated. i will go over a couple points that we have highlighted from usa today and the wall street journal about some of the tax cuts that president trump has proposed. he has suggested extending t 2017 tax cuts that expire this year, eliminate taxes on

overtime, tips, and social security benefits, and creating a deduction for auto loan interest for american-made cars. he has promised higher taxes on u.s. imports through a series of new tariffs. there is also a few more details that we were able to get from the language that came out friday, but it is pretty complicated. i understand it gets messy. is there a specific question you had about what has been released so far that we can help with? caller: what you just read makes a lot of sense. he knows what he is doing. you know want? i'm going to send him a card and let him know what a good job he is doing. host: next is john in new york on our line for independents. caller: thanks for taking my call. it seems like we are divided

into two camps and like it is a cure-all, a panacea, the cure for our problems today. it is just going to be higher taxes. what people have to worry about, when you do tax the rich, what happens is a lot of them are just going to close their businesses and moved other countries and as the previous caller said that is going to affect employment in united states. so i think you just cannot have a knee-jerk reaction that taxation, especially of the rich, is going to be the solution to all problems. i do believe that modest increases in the tax code vis-a-vis the rich will be beneficial. it would show the republican party is more responsive to the needs of the people, moving more toward the center and even to the left in an effort to benefit the people, but this has always

been the problem. taxation on rich people is going to solve our problems. finally, the last thing i like to point out is there is a terminus amount of waste, fraud, and abuse that has to be curtailed and doge might not be the perfect solution but it is a step in the right direction. so i would hope people will consider those points. thanks for taking my call. host: a little more detail on the plan that republicans released friday from politico. it includes plans to boost popular tax breaks like the child tax credit but leaves more controversial provisions to flesh out later. they temporarily increase the child tax credit by $500 while also hiking the standard deduction by $2000 for couples to 32,000 dollars. together, the provisions aimed

at average americans may help them rebut complaints from democrats that their plans give too much to the wealthy and republicans would have them take effect this tax year so people could receive bigger refunds when they file their returns next year ahead of the midterm elections. republicans also want to permanently extend the roster of lower income tax rates they first put in place in 2017. the legislation omits an increase in the top tax rate on the highest earners, something lawmakers spent weeks debating. it eases the tax on large estates. matt is in north carolina on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. i just scratch my head when we try to figure out how they tax code is written. one of the things i try to tell people is the tax code is written by rich people and rich

people are always going to take care of rich people. until tax codes are written by regular people or accountants or something like that so we can start working on our debt -- that is the biggest thing -- biggest singular thing we have to be scared of, knowing bankrupt as a country. we have got to pay taxes. we have to pay taxes and the rich have to pay more. once again, elon musk has $200 million -- $200 billion. you can tax him 99% and he will still have $2 billion, which is still 2000 millions. people do not even know what a trillion dollars is. a trillion dollars is a thousand billions. we owe 36,000 billions. i wish we would stop using the

term trillion so people could get their head around that. if i broke it down to millions, you guys would just freak out about how many millions it is. the regular person cannot comprehend that money, but we have to figure out how to get that squared away and people are going to have to pay. we have to get it squared away and we have to be tight on our budget and take care of the united states. if you do not like paying taxes, do not be an american. we need to get out of this thing and i think that is what we should do. host: pat is in new jersey on our line for republicans. caller: happy mother's day to all. it is time to defund planned parenthood. thank you. happy mother's day. host: next is mary on our line for democrats. caller: it is no question that the rich needs to be paying

more. you look at a lot of times -- with us providing them with start up money, grants -- and i remember when president obama in his state of the union address notified the republicans and democrats and the american people, the corporations did not build this by themselves. people need to realize we provide more corporate welfare to corporations in this country. we provide protection for their businesses and corporations when they go into other countries. of course they need to pay more. we need to start waking up and looking at we did not create this $36 trillion in debt. the corporations have major loopholes that they can write

off, which ends up not paying one cent in taxes in this country. i remember when president obama try to get them to repatriate their money back to the united states. these corporations. and they failed to do so. so let's wake up to reality. they need to pay more than their fair share because we are providing more wealth to them. thank you. have a good day. host: mary was mentioning corporate tax rates. more from that politico article on the section of legislation republicans released friday. on the business side, they sweetened the special break for owners of unincorporated businesses as well as reduced rates on arcane taxes aimed at multinational corporations. the legislation is only part of republicans' plans and does not include the controversial tax increases they intend to use to help offset the budgetary costs of the plans, such as an

increase in a tax on college endowment investment earnings or calling green energy tax subsidies. last month, senate minority leader chuck schumer spoke out against president trump and the gop and their tax plans. [video clip] >> a few moments ago, house republicans plowed ahead on a morally and financially bankrupt plan to gut medicaid while cutting taxes. republicans did just with airbus -- boss told him to do. they close their eyes and voted for a bill knowing it will explode the deficit by $52 trillion and kick millions of health care. they voted it knowing that american families lose and billionaires win. they voted for it knowing it would got critical investments

for the american people. they voted for it knowing it would mortgage our nation's future commented deliver massive giveaways to the wealthiest americans. republicans incinerated any credibility that remained about them supposedly being the party of fiscal responsibility. last week, we sounded the alarm about how the republican budget resolution was the definition of wasteful spending. $37 trillion. i say or so we thought because this morning we have discovered it is even worse than we feared. this morning, the congressional budget office released a new projection showing the billionaire tax giveaways will actually end -- add $52 trillion

to the debt. it has gotten even worse. why? because republicans in the senate did not just copy and paste the 2017 from tax bill. they added over a trillion more. this is the trump tax scam on steroids. it is going to bankrupt america. also they can give these tax breaks. it is incredible. host: back your calls on tax policy. sam is in ohio on our line for independents. caller: good morning. i just have a couple of things to say. most people do not know history and do not know the history of how we got here and how we get

out of it. world war two was complete lee paid for by the united states citizens by buying bonds in the united states. when we decided to invade iraq and afghanistan, taxes were not raised. we were all told to go and buy stuff. however, taxes were not raised on anybody, much less the rich, who can afford it. it is like the bank robber who says, why do you rob banks? that is where the money is. and keep going after the middle class. it will literally destroy this country. general eisenhower, after world war ii, we were only six -- a little over six of what we owed

ourselves. we did not know anyone. host: how do you think those historical examples should inform what we do with tax policy moving forward, especially with republicans getting ready to release this tax legislation? caller: i think is interesting that general eisenhower went on television and was offered to be the nominee for the democrats and had a sit down with president truman and said, i am afraid that if i become a democrat -- he never voted as long as he was in the military. host: i want to keep it on the tax policy question. let's hear from david in north carolina on our line for republicans. caller: i am a retired cpa.

i continue to hear left blaming the billionaires and we need to tax more and more revenue. we do not have a revenue issue. we have an expense issue. if you take the billionaires -- i just googled these facts. their wealth is 6.2 trillion dollars, so if you took every penny they have, you could not pay 1/5 of our national debt. according to the tax foundation, the top 1% of earners pay 45.8% in income tax. the one thing i never heard from the democrats is how much tax do they want them to pay. it is always they need to pay more. in my practice, i saw the trump tax cuts across the board cut tax benefit to taxpayers. the small businesses i had --

businesses that had five to 50 employees provided good working conditions, good pay, pension insurance, and these are the people these tax cuts helped, who helped this country and giving good jobs to people, so i think it is about time that we realized we have an expense problem in this country and not a revenue problem. thank you. have a nice mother's day. host: some of those points are echoed in an opinion piece by the heartland institute. this op-ed saying, trump tax cuts are helping the poor more than the rich. then come going on to say, since the republican congress began debating the bill that eventually became the tax cuts and jobs act, leftists have accused the legislation being a tax cut for the wealthy funded by middle and lower income americans. in reality, the tax cuts and jobs act passed in 2017 has

benefited working and middle-class americans will increasing the total tax burden paid by millionaires and billionaires. i am going to scroll down a bit on this. in terms of percentage save profiler, the irs data shows filers on the lower end of the income spectrum received larger reductions compared to those in the higher end. for example, if you earn $45,000 in 2022, you received a 19% reduction in taxes compared to 2017. if you earn $5 million, you saved 2.3%. laura is in texas on our line for democrats. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm distressed over the amount of information spewed on c-span.

the oligarchy owns the debt. they are not paying the taxes they should be paying. they are taking rather than giving for the opportunity of making money in united states and in the world. it is a betrayal. i am speechless. i truly am. they extend these tax cuts, this country will not just go into a recession. we will have another depression. and the oligarchy own it all. jeff bezos, zuckerberg, elon musk, peter thiel, all of them. they have screwed our country up. they have screwed the tax code up. they think they will be able to survive it. they will not. because china and russia will not let them. they are softening up this country just like rome was soft

and up -- softened up by its oligarchy. it is not just expenditures. it is revenue. it was the star of the doctrine that got us here, starting with president reagan. the republicans have been busy betraying this country, betraying their constituency, and there will be a reckoning. it is not going to be very polite. trump is insane. he does not know what he is doing. unfortunately, the democrat party does not know what they are doing either. host: some of those points that laura razor also in an op-ed by dean baker that is here. it says here that wealthy americans must pay their fair

share. they share of before tax income going to the richest 1% of taxpayers more than doubled since the 1980's, according to the organization for economic cooperation and development. the massive redistribution of income was prim and a result of the ability of the rich to structure the economy in ways that benefited them. trade agreements, patent monopolies, and a bloated financial industry. this was not enough for the nation's rich the wealthiest amended that politicians give them lower tax rates and politicians have responded to the demand from wealthy campaign contributors. the top tax rate for very high income people fell from 70% in the 1970's to 35% today. the tax rate on capital gains, which accounts for most of the income of the rich and superrich, is now 20%. the tax rate on corporate profits fell from 50% in the

1970's to 21% today. sherry is in maine on our line for independence. caller: yes. i agree the rich need to pay more. i am a retired schoolteacher and i am paying $1800 in taxes. i remember trump one year paid 720 six dollars in taxes. i think trump's plan is about helping the wealthy and not the middle and lower classes. host: bob is in tennessee on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i was glad that you read that piece about two or three -- about three or four calls ago, you read exactly what the

republican view was and we used to say -- people need to quit depending on the government and start -- for their selves because the line of work i got, i need rich people. they give me my work. i do not want to hurt them. host: if you do not mind sharing, what kind of work is it? caller: i am in construction. i paint. but what i'm saying -- i was going to but -- and i think trump is a smart guy too and i wish somehow he could be our king until he died. i know that might upset a lot of people, but this man has been through everything. i mean, there is no person -- just like these judges going after him. that is crazy.

host: there is a group called securing american greatness, a pro-trump nonprofit group not required to disclose its donors, and it is adding -- running this ad nationally on cable stations and online starting tomorrow. >> they have ruined our economy. president trump is fixing it. his plan, middle tax -- middle-class tax cuts that bring home american jobs, increasing american energy production, bringing down prices. we are already seeing results. the cost of living is coming down. inflation and gas prices are at four year lows and we are creating american jobs. tell congress this is a good deal for america. support president trump >> -- president trump's plan to get our economy on track. host: david is in ohio on our line for independents. caller: thanks for taking my

call. you can play around with the numbers, percentages of the rich and all this. as far as i'm concerned, the rich are getting richer and there is no economic benefit to giving them a tax cut. i go back to the trickle-down economics theory under reagan that was debated. economists called it the horse and sparrow theory. if you give the horse enough votes, enough will pass through the horse to feed the sparrows. that is basically what is happening. if you talk about an expense problem, look at the military bases overseas and somebody referenced the great president dwight eisenhower. he warned the mark and people in 1960 of the military-industrial complex and how it had too much

power. why would a republican general and impeccable patriot feel like he needed to warn the american people of this? it is still going on. kennedy tried to stop it and unfortunately he came to a bad end so the new guy did not stop the military-industrial complex. that is one of the problems. we have too much power in the oligarchy. what makes america great is our bill of rights and constitution, where the power was split. they said, no kings. we need independence -- the king of england imposed absolute authority on the colonies and that is what makes america great, our sense of freedom and justice. that is what we need now. we do not need tax cuts for the rich, that is for sure. host: there is more from that gallup poll mentioned earlier in

terms of how americans view our tax system, particularly broken down by party. democrats say that the amount they pay in federal income taxes is fair when compared to 45% of independence and 35% of republicans, who think the amount they individually pay in income taxes is fair. let's hear from john on our line for democrats. caller: yes. my name is john. happy mother's day to all the mothers out there. the problem with the rich as they are not been taxed the same as every individual. they are being compensated through companies in ways we cannot even think of. a free place to live, free cars, free credit cards to spend what they want. this is not earned income. this is what they spend and what is going on.

you could tax the rich all you want. what people are sing about world war ii and patriots in world war ii -- the rich got together and paid. so why don't they do it now? the only reason they are rich is because they have businesses in america and american people buy their products. it is ridiculous. some of these coo's or would ever make more than 20 people make in their whole lifetime. in one year. it is ridiculous. >> next is glenn in pennsylvania on our line for republicans. caller: i called in on account of the retired schoolteacher that paid 1800. she did not tell you how much pension she gets from taxpayer money. and elon musk one year paid $10 billion.

host: can i ask you to turn down the volume on your tv? then you are welcome to continue. we heard the beginning point. you said that elon musk paid $10 billion. what was the rest of your point? caller: in one year. how much does she want him to pay? $10 billion in one year's not enough? an independents are democrats. so they should not have three lines. you should have democrat an independents together and republicans. you have to stop leaning to the left. c-span, you have to stop leaning to the left. thanks for your time. host: next is tom on our line for democrats. caller: good morning and thank you for the show. i would like you, if you could come up the studies on

trickle-down economics. i will give you three of them. one is the london school of economics. one is by the rand corporation, a 40 year study. one is by harvard that just came out showing trickle-down economics is pretty much a farce. i would like you to do a show where you ask your callers, what would they do with the money that supposedly the rich invest and trickles down? as an example, if you had $200,000 and you handed it to a rich person and they went out and built a new investment, maybe a burger king, and hired people or you could hire a cop with a gun to be in your son's school where he is protecting our children, creating a good job, buy a car that is made in america, buying a gun that is made in america. which of those things would you

rather have? those are really your choices. it is what you really get. so would you rather have the cop protecting your children or a tax break for the rich? that is really the question. please pull those studies up. i appreciate your show very much. host: though studies do exist, but i will point to a summary of one of the studies and cbs news. this is a story from 2020. 50 years of tax cuts for the rich failed trickle-down, economic study says. tax cuts for the wealthy have drawn support from conservative lawmakers and economists who argue such measures will trickle down and eventually boost jobs and income for everyone else. but a new study from the london school of economics says 50 years of such tax cuts have only helped one group, the rich. the new paper by the london school of economics and king's college london examines 18 developed countries over a 50

year period from 1965 to 2015. the study compared countries that passed tax cuts in a specific year, such as the u.s. when president ronald reagan slashed taxes on the wealthy, with those that did not and examined economic outcomes. unemployment rates were nearly identical in countries that slashed taxes on the rich and those that did not. the study found one major change. incomes of the rich grew much faster in countries are tax rates were lower. instead trickling down to the middle class, tax cuts for the rich may not accomplish much more than help the rich keep more of their riches and exacerbate income inequality, research indicates. next is josephine in new jersey. good morning. caller: in the 1950's, the rich

paid 98% of taxes. we had to pay off world war ii. ronald reagan decided that was not necessary to pay anymore, but he went to the other extreme . his philosophy was trickle-down economy. that was a phrase that never worked out. people really get screwed are those of us who are single. we have always paid for other people's education. we have always paid for everything. i never forgot when i had to do paperwork on people who change their status because they became a widow. a woman came to me and started screaming, change it back. but that i am married. i cannot pay it myself. i said, now you know what i pay all the time. the other thing is the average billionaire come out to all

those so-called knowledgeable people cannot pay percent average. you know what i paid last year? 39%. and i am single. i did not have anybody in the home. i did not stay home. i had to go work for 51 years. so are you going to take it from those who do not have it? literally taking food out of their mouths? like they were showing yesterday in sudan, people are starving because the united states were literally killing people with this philosophy? thank you. host: next is sandy in new jersey on our line for democrats. caller: hello. host: i want to make sure the volume on your tv is turned down. caller: sure. people talk about how rich should not pay more, but it seems like when they talk about it they are talking about

corporations should not pay more. can taxes for corporations stay where they are but the people that are drawing the high salaries -- the ceos, entertainment, anything, politicians that make a lot of money, can't they be taxed a higher rate? or at least a fair rate that everybody else is taxed without the loopholes? i think corporations and private people should be held differently. host: on the 2017 tax cuts and jobs act was passed, the corporate tax cuts were made permanent but the individual tax cuts were set to expire. so what is being debated is what to do about the individual tax cuts, so the decisions about the corporate tax rates were kind of locked in and the debate happening in congress coming up is about what to do about those individual rates.

how do you think they should handle that? caller: they should pay their fair share. i do not think individual tax rates are going to affect people's jobs as much as the corporate tax rate was. they should be paid -- they should be charged their fair share. without the loopholes. host: let's hear next from rich in ohio on our line for republicans. caller: some really good points there. it seems like we have a problem of taxing drug companies too much and suddenly they moved to ireland because their taxes are lower so we said let's charge them even more taxes and maybe we can move another company from the united states. we need to try to do it right but we do not have the golden goose problem. that golden goose will be a great meal, but suddenly every month they do not produce more

earnings. when the rich are producing earnings for us -- it is not perfect. every group, people are taking money and trying to get the right answer here is so important because china is trying to figure which way to screw us up. i will hang up. what is your answer? host: interesting points. let's hear from alan in tennessee on our line for independence. caller: how are you this morning? host: fine, thank you. caller: i think the problem in a word is money. i do not believe in -- i believe the politicians abused divide and conquer. half the americans are republican and half our democrat. while they are fighting each other, the politicians are just

getting richer and richer. i'm 76 years old. i started voting. what politicians today do would have put them in jail for taking all this money from the rich and corporations. we need to stop that. no one is going to give a politician -- no person or corporation will give the millions of dollars without expecting something in return. we have a congress that has not done anything of any substance in probably 30 years because each side is afraid to get their donors, their wealthy donors and corporations, upset where they will not give them money anymore so the average person is not considered by congress anymore. until we take the money out of it, nothing is going to get

better. on either side. by either side. host: on one side of this issue, on the floor of the senate, bernie sanders was speaking out against the gop tax cuts and their plans as well as wealth inequality in general. [video clip] >> mehta president, as you may know cut we have more income -- madam president, as you may know, we have more income and wealth inequality today we have ever had in the history of america. three people on top of more wealth than the bottom half of american society, top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%. ceos now make about 300 times more than workers. in other words, the very rich are becoming much richer and working families are struggling. so what does this budget resolution do to address this serious crisis?

does it help working people? does it help low income people? not really. it makes income and wealth inequality worse by providing massive tax breaks to billionaires and the richest in the country. driving up the national debt and making those on top very happy. in america today, the richest country in the history of the world, we have 60% of our people living paycheck-to-paycheck, struggling every week to put food on the table, to pay the rent, to deal with child care. real wages -- real inflation accounted for wages for the average american worker have been stagnant for the last 50 years, despite increase in

worker productivity. today, across the country, you have workers working for 13 bucks an hour, working for starvation wages, some of them actually sleeping in their cars. host: let's turn to commons we have been receiving on social media. linda smith, referring to president trump and his changing position on whether to raise taxes on the rich, he keeps pivoting on everything because he believes in nothing. then nick kirby says on facebook, i believe they are taxed more than anyone. it is proven taxing warm will not fix the problem. scott says there should not be an income tax to begin with. there should just be a national sales t. jim says raising taxes is not a good thing. we neeto lower the individual and corporate tax rates so the economy is open to all, not just

the ones the politicians choose. matthew says taxes should not be raised o anyone. massive spending cuts are needed. raymond says, of course not. this is related to should the wealthy pay more taxes. of course not. they already pay 45% of all federal income taxes. just leave the rates on the rich where th are and cut the middle class like tips, overtime, and social secury. carolyn cookays the art of the deal. trumknows what he is doing. just get out of his way. i support everything president trump has done and will do the next 3.5 years. trump-vance 2028. now back to your calls and you can send us a text message or social media post. the text line is (202) 748-8003. we are on social media at facebook.com/cspan and on x at

@cspanwj. now back to your calls. donna is in maine on our line for democrats. caller: i hope the gentleman from pennsylvania still listening. he commented on the teacher's retirement benefits, that all the taxpayer money went into. and maybe in pennsylvania taxpayer money goes into teachers retirement benefits, but not in massachusetts. i am almost 78 and i just finally qualified for social security because i worked. but prior to that retirement benefits come from our paycheck. they go into an annuity, which grows over time, and that is --

in the stock market and that supplies our benefit. but he was quite -- he begrudged the taxpayer money that went into that woman's retirement benefits. at least in massachusetts, that is not the case. host: keith is in pennsylvania on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: i would like to say that spending is the real problem in our government and i do not believe that republicans or democrats have helped at all. i am against tips getting taxed free because they are earning income and they should pay the same as everyone else that is earning income.

also, trump wanted social security to be tax-free. that would help me come up but i am against it because our federal government is so far in debt. host: one of the other things being debated in terms of what should end up in the final tax bill is changes to the state and local taxed adduction. here's a story about this in fox news. blue state republicans threatened mutiny over state and local taxes in trump's bill. going on to say that sparks are flying over taxes that primarily affect republicans representing districts in democrat-controlled states, sending tensions skyrocketing as gop lawmakers negotiate president trump's bill. the fight more specifically is about state and local taxed inductions known as salt.

republican lawmakers representing high cost of living areas had been pushing leaders to raise the current cap on salt deductions, $10,000 for single filers and married couples in the bill. thursday night, leaders of the house caucus rejected what they said was an offer from gop leaders to raise the deduction to $30,000. we have negotiated in good faith from the start, fighting for the taxpayers we represent in new york, yet with no notice or agreement the speaker and house ways and means committee proposed a flat $30,000 cap, a amount they already knew would fall short of earning our suort, the statement said. president trump on friday weighed in on the debate over the state and local taxed adduction. here is the exchange. -- tax deduction. here's the exchange. >> there are some who say why is

at least 45 other states should be paying taxes to alleviate the tax burden of new york? >> because the states are badly behind and those people are affected badly and the sad part is often they were affected badly because you had bad management of the states, like in california with newsom, so you had bad management, but that is being worked on now. it is a very complex issue, but i think it is being worked out. it has not been settled yet, but they will settle it quickly. host: clyde is in new york on our line for independents. caller: i am a real estate investor and i had to learn the hard way what money was about. unfortunately, or fortunately, bernie sanders is actually telling the truth.

if you want to save social security and medicaid and so forth, you can just tax the wealthy and take the cap off of social security and income for the wealthy. that would clear it up within a matter of 10 years. we will never have to worry about social security and medicaid again. and i voted for reagan. i now know it was a horrible mistake, even though i am in a certain tax bracket. the wealthy have gotten filthy rich. the rich have gotten a 400% wealth increase. everybody else has stayed stagnant and most americans are not financially savvy and all you have to do is just look at how much the wealthy have increased in their pay and benefits and so forth and so on

and look at the average man. from the time of reagan, the wages stagnant this -- stagnant-ness of the middle class has stopped. that was the end of the middle class, when reagan got in and did that trickle-down economics. host: frank is in maryland on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: happy mother's day. i remember in 1963 real fiscally conservative republicans saying the j of taking -- jfk tax cuts were going to lead to growing deficits. i remember reagan saying the reason for his tax cuts initially was to starve the beast and the idea was the deficit got so big all of these wasteful entitlement programs

would have to be -- congress will be forced to cut them. he is jumping up and down right now. that is how we got to where we are at. tax cuts do not pay for themselves. he told a lie, tax cuts pay for themselves. research shows they pay about $.33 back for every dollar you cut. the republican agenda is to cut every progressive program since roosevelt. i mean teddy roosevelt, not just franklin roosevelt. they will get rid of social security, medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance, and everything else. i have a niece i believe is now alive because of the maryland medicaid program saving her when she was having a difficult pregnancy that i guess if she was in mississippi should probably be dead, as well as her baby.

we need to understand why our government -- our federal government is here. we need to support each other as a nation. we need to not tear down fema. that is crazy. we are going to have national disasters -- natural disasters and he is going to expect poor states to pay for everything? if a category five hit alabama -- host: i want to get to a couple more folks before we have to end the segment. let's hear from david in pennsylvania. caller: i think people are confused this morning. it is we the people. we have to take care of one another. we have something called social security. if we get rid of these illegal immigrants that are in this country illegally -- i'm all for everybody coming here the right way, legally, but here's the point. we get rid of the illegal immigrants spending billions of dollars on these illegal

immigrant programs, we will save money right there we get rid of these illegal immigrants. i am not a racist. i'm not against anybody coming in the right way like my grandparents did and our founding fathers did. host: michael is in nevada on our line for democrats. caller: i wanted to bring up a couple things. a comet was made last week about how donald trump claims that ross perot cost george bush the election in 1992, which i think is false. george bush's time was up. ross perot voters, if they had a choice, they were not vote for bush. they would have voted for clinton. in 1982, the president -- precedent has been decided by the united states supreme court. taxes are taxable income.

they already decided. people that tip have to pay taxes on their money and if they to people they -- why should i tip them if they do not have to that will ruin it for everything. i have been in the gaming industry since 1987. it will ruin everything for the poor people in nevada. besides that, we need to take care of the deficit. host: thank you to everyone that called. up next we will have a couple more interesting segmentsment later we will talk with kristen rowe-finkbauer of the mom rising on public policy challenges facing mothers.

up next we will have the discussion on the state of the media with matthew boyle the wash bureau for bright heart news network. >> weekends bring you book tv with leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. robertput shares has medicine lost its mind where he argues they have fade to consider the importance of member health forhycal health. kimberly heckler tal aut her biography of her mher-in-law. margaret was a republican member of congress from massachusetts who later served as hhless s

seetary and ambassador to ireland. on after words sophie gilbert looks at the populre of the 1990's and early 2000's in girl onirl how it turned a generation of women against themselves. watch book tv every weekend on c-span 2 and find a full schedule on the program guide or watch online at booktv.org. get c-span wherever you are with c-span now our free mobile video app that puts you at the center of democracy. keep up with the biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings from the congress, white house events, courts, campaigns and

more. catch the lateest episodes of washington journal, schedule being information for tv and radio networks and compel being podcasts. c-span now app is available at the apple store and google play. c-span, democracy unfiltered. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by matthew boyle who is the washington bureau chief of breitbart fuse network. guest: thanks for having me. host: welcome back. tell us about the breitbart news service how you are funded, where you exist on line and tv. guest: since it is mother's day i have to shout out to my mom many she is watching and excite and i wouldn't and neither would -- host: what is her fame?

guest: her name is pattiment happy mother's day to my mom and all moms. we are a right of center conservative outlet. we are -- our main product is our website breitbart.com but we do seven days a week of radio on sirius xm. i host our saturday know -- show. we do lots of video. we have a big social platform. we cover the news and i think we do a better job than a lot of our competitors and there's a serious crisis right now in the media industry. people are turning to new outlets like us to get the facts while the rest of the legacy media is hurting.

host: this site and your news network is named after andrew breitbart. let's look at a clip from andrew breitbart will passed away since this has aired but this is an interview we had with him on washington journal in may of 2011, 14 years ago. >> i used to be what i refer to in the book as a default liberal. i grew up liberal in the west side of los angeles and what i learned in prep school and american studies degree at tulane university and mdv and abc, cbs and nbc is that liberalism is righteous and anybody that disagrees is somehow against the children, against the environment, against all things good. i happened upon conservative, i tripped upon conservatism during a time i was driving scripts

around hollywood and when i discovered a.m. radio rush limbaugh i heard a perspective i never had heard and it made more sense than what i had been growing up with. so i'm indignant that the man stream media pretends to be objective when it is a kupblg i'm a tea party and righteous about what their cause is limited government, i'm ripous about fiscal restraint and mainstream the democrat media complex with frame the tea party from the get go as a potentially violent threat and a racist threat shows how frightened the democrat media complex is of its own citizenry. host: he passed away about a year later in march of 2012.

can you tell us a bit about him and how his work informs your site? guest: you heard him talking about what he believes about the objectivity of the establishment media. we see in establishment media outlets and this is unique to the united states. british press don't do this and other places are pretty open about what they believe. established media outlets people that work there claim they are objective and it is humanly impossible to be objective. every decision away milwaukee from who we interview to what quotes we use and what we put in the headlines has the opportunity for the insertion of bias. we are haoup, we are not rodents. our belief is that it is better to be open is what we believe with our audience and honest

rather than claim we are robertsic -- robotic people. i think it is better to be open and honest about that and andrew breitbart believed that so we built the team armed the ethos of our news organization is built around we are open and honest. at the same time everything we do accuracy is king. so every story we do i challenge anybody out there to find anything we printed that is inaccurate. if you do reach out to us. we will consider a correction but the fact is accuracy is king. so it is starting from the belief that if we can be open and honest with our audiences and let's be honest for a minute. the vast majority of people in the establishment the people that work for "new york times"

and were voted for kamala layers, joe biden. i voted for trump. i'm open. i'm a conservative. at the same time that doesn't mean i can't tell the truth. i'm a journalist at heart and i want the truth to succeed and to hold people in power accountable. the biggest thing we are doing right now is really holding president trump to the campaign promises he made to the american people so we are doing stories designed to focus on that and i think it is working. so i think people continue to turn more and if you look at the actions of the president and work we have done this year we are doing a real, i think that is the -- too many people in the established media got lost during trump's first term. they were focused on cause

playing thinking they would take the president down. that was a once in a lifetime thing the watergate story. and i think that they thought that is what they were going to do and cooked up things against trump to take him down and most of that didn't pan out and most of it was inaccurate. they turn arson and ward themselves pullitzer prizes and other awards to celebrate themselves. the fact is that i think that there are serious problems with this media industry and they stem from what andrew breitbart identified which is the objectivity. host: you mentioned this idea of objectivity which you believe do not stkpeus filters will you people select stories. can you talk about stories breitbart covers aren't being covered or fairly? guest: a good example is what we saw with the liberation day with president trump announced

tariffs then a week later the 90 day pause and anybody paying attention to president trump knows the focus is on china. when the president rolled the 90 day pause i was in greece and interviewing the prime minister. a day or so before and the thing we saw again from across the established media they were saying oh, the whole rest of the world is upset with president trump. i didn't find that. i was in greece talking to the prime minister and he is saying the european union and united states can easily reach a mutually baseball trade deal and our interview got major attention there and tanks here. president trump responded to it at the white house and spoke highly of the prime minister. but the fact is i think there's a lot of -- there are a lot of

people worldwide that support what prison is doing here in trying to turn the tide when it comes to trade. we have seen once vibrant communities in america's high hrafrpldz that produce a fraction of what they used to do and a big part of the reason is leaders of both political parties, republicans and democrats, were doing things over the course of their, the last 30 years since the end of the cold war that enabled the chinese communist part to rise so it is clear president trump is focused on china, he didn't want to tip his hand and when he does the pause he does it for everything to china. you don't feed a rosetta stone

to understand what he is doing. you have to learn to his speeches and if you look at our coverage of the trade battle i think it is a lot burn a lot of the rest of the establishment. host: can you talk about your aspects as a news organization to the trump administration and access you had to prefer administrations? >> this is the most transparent administration and more so than president trump as first terment i think his first term was fell the second term the most transparent but we have a lot of access. we have interviewed most of the cabinet already. i personally have done a bunch of them. this past week i was with steve wickobf the special envoy to the middle east and trying to get to lasting peace in gaza and ends to the russian-ukraine war and

expand the abraham accords and meeting with the iranians i believe today. we published several pieces from that and we have more coming. but we have interviewed several members of the president's cannot. i interviewed the president alongside a couple of my colleagues. the vice president. they are extremely accessible more so than any -- the biden administration was very closed off. the obama administration i cannot spook back further tan that but that is when i started was pretty closed off. so i would say trump in the white house has been one of the most open, honest, transparent in this administration both the first term and second alternatively. host: do you have a seat if the white house briefing room? guest: technically no because that is decided by the white house correspondents

association. we have had a variety of conflicts dating back a long time. this white house did add to of two new seeds they call the new media seats on their first press briefing. delivers in the press briefing room in a new media seat at the beginning of this second term. i think that was a good move. i do think the white house correspondents association has serious problems as an institution. they have regularly stripped voting rights from news organizations. they have kicked organizations out. they serve to protect the establishment legacy media outlets, the ones that are there in the front couple rows. they are more interested in protecting the associated press and cnn and those places than

providing more voices. that is andrew breitbart that more voices is good. i think we should open the briefing room and have far more outlets. so this white house has taken a number of steps. at the same time as a journalist i would prefer that these steps come from the journalists. the white house correspondence association should lead the efforts. host: the white house has suggested maybe they should make the seating chart. guest: that is the thing the white house correspondence association should change. maybe they should take the stems and not let the white house set the tone. but if you believe in the first amendment you believe in journalism, you believe in media access, then as an institution maybe they should be the ones

taking the steps, not the white house. so while i applaud the white house they should be coming from the white house correspondencement host: we have lots of callers request questions. democratic line is 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002ment we start with bradley in marietta, georgia on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. this guy is gas lighting you. he is ridiculous. when you broke up the russian hoax it was not a hoax. he and there is ample evidence and he doesn't say anything negative about breitbart. he is in cahoots or whatever. there was a russian conspiracy and that is all i want to say. this guy is terrible.

host: we prefer if you not insult our guest but i will let you response. guest: typical democrats. that is what we are facing on a regular basis. at a certain point -- by the way there are a lot of reasonable democrats. i have many friends who are democrats and they agree on a lot of these issues technically protecting the working class. i was watching in the green room the last hour you were talking about the tax rates. the fact that you see president trump even considering raising taxes on the upper income fox out there. the fact is that president trump has pulled off the greatest political realignment in probably american history definitely with f.d.r.'s. but the working class voters who make up his coalition, plaque, hispanic, he had historic numbers with both demographics. he remembers that.

the core part of his pledge is to raise -- to eliminate taxes on tips, eliminate taxes on social security income and overtime wages is hopefully those are part of this reconciliation planned i think that will help working class people. but i do think that the radical left we see out there, they are still the radical left. >> we have a question from x. what left of center news organizationso u believe are considerablend specifically what are your thoughts on glen greenwald and crystal ball? guest: glen is fantastic. i'm a huge fan of hits work. i follow it. i follow ryan at drop site. i think he is a pretty solid guy. while i criticize these

established outlets i regularly brief them. i subscribe to the washington post and "new york times." i read politic coal and the hill to gather information. but i also would say that the exciting folks on the left are in many ways glen greenwald and ryan grim. host: on the line for republicans is tom. host: good morning, sir. i have two questions. first is about ai. is it a game changer now since we are more progressing to ai that it could help us with the tariffs and offset the cheap slave labor china uses and we will be able to defeat them with the tariffs and having more businesses and factories in the united states. another question is that the new

pope with his globalist ideas wants to push for illegal immigration. why don't he tear down the walls of vatican, get rid of security and all those expensive payments and sculptures he could house illegals over. as a catholic i have been to the vatican. he should put his money where his mouth is. guest: two points there. on the ai one thing talking to senior administration and cabinet officials in the trump administration i have interviewed the administration of the e.p.a. and others. they all to a person talk about the importance of artificial intelligence for the future. as for what that exacts looks like and what the policies look

like, that story is yet to be written. so, we will see as it plays out. as for the pope, still unclear as to where he is going to come down politically, culturally, et cetera. so it is a story we are watching very closely. there are some signs that he -- i think he was a registered republican so i think there are some signs that he may not be as left of center or as far left progressive as pope francis was, but there are signs he is pretty critical on immigration. it is a story we are watching closely. >> a question text from denese in minnesota have you covered the possibilities of a recession or are we already in one? guest: i'm a journalist not an economist. but as for that question, our economic editor who joined us

from the "wall street journal" several years ago has been tracking this very closely. i don't think we are in a recession. i do think there's a lot of strong economic signs from the trump administration so far jobs numbers looking good, a lot of science that the federal reserve is moving a logical too slowly with some of the forthcoming rate cuts. i know the president has been aggressive trying to push them to cut rates faster and there is a lot of investment coming into the united states from a lot of different companies. i tacked to several executives of companies that were working at different or places around the world and places look asia and they are excited to invest in america. so i think you are seeing early signs of the trump economy doing strongly. but the idea we are in a recession i don't think so. host: morgan is in reading,

pennsylvania on the line for democrats. good morning, morgan. caller: good morning. your comment about the radical left, really, you people are allies to nazis and the klan -- host: do you have a specific question? caller: how come we don't hear you pushing back on the nazis look you push back on a boy that wants to be a girl. guest: again, our friends on the radical left continue to throw around names like this. it is nonsense the idea that we would be nazis or anything like that. breitbart has its roots in israel, our founding andrew breitbart, our c.e.o. went to israel, met with benjamin netanyahu before they founded breitbart.com. the idea that we are somehow

aligned with nazis is nonsense. it is crazy. i think what you see -- host: i think the question though is whether you spends more time covering things like trans gender athletes versus any rise of anti-semitism or racism. guest: i would argue both are major issues but the fact is that it is not normal to have biological boys competing against biological girl. they have and inherent biological advantage. i argued both are legit and worth pursuing. host: next is ed in columbia station, ohio, on the line for republicans. caller: matthew, good to see you on the show. news media and the trump administration, i'm 65 never missed a vote from local to

presidential. this is the most therapeutic president we have ever had. the fake news -- whenever he is live or anything they don't show up but the their spin on it or cut him out. we have already will trillions dedicated from overseas just on his policies. he's not even in 120 days yet. just like the correspondents from washington just had a week or two ago, they gave person of the year, it was the person of the year kamala harris, then biden comes back out of his basement goes on the view a and she lost because of sexism and racism. that is all the media does, the faculty news and the they are low information voters.

they have the pollsters in the collusion story which is fake done by the document party. the clinton administration and it is proven. they have a pullitzer for that. trump's ratings are still high. the demorats even bernie sanders running around -- host: did you have a question for matthew? caller: yes. what i want to ask and let go, you have 30 -- we are already seeing it but the media's ratings are like 17% almost as bad as washington. how can people still be of that party. i already heard a nazi caller. they are to so hateful which is good for there -- host: ed, you have raised a

bunch of points. we will let matthew respond. guest: there's a few things. i remember he mentioned the pulse certifies the two major newspapers got over the russia collusion hoax. those two newspapers with return those prizes if they were honorable and give them back because of the stories were totally fake. the fact is that there wasn't a collusion hoax. we know that now. or there waeplt russia collusion. there was the hoax. i think the trust in the media is a major crisis and again we are built to answer this. this is what breitbart does. we go in and cover stories that other media outlets don't and we are a team of about 80 people that work here and we regularly put up numbers that are stronger

in terms of social media interaction, in terms of traffic that are stronger than "new york times" or "washington post." we had our guys pull the numbers just the other day. our numbers in the last 30 days pwhaoefrpb a million interactions, more than the "new york times" and beat almost every single media outlet. why are people coming to us? it is because i think that they are hungry for a news organization that has their trust and we are honest with the people. you know what you are getting when you come to breitbart. you know that these are guys that, like trump, that want to succeed. it is conservative ideas. but also that we are going to tell you the truth. i think that the established media outlets have to change their ways. and there are promising things

happening in the media. i would say some changes he "washington post" under new leadership are fascinating and i'm watching that. we will see if that continues and how long that goes for. there are some serious problems in this industry and if you believe in telling the truth and journalistic integrity and holding people accountable we need help as host: there's interesting date of this trust in media, finding that republicans have become more likely since 2024 to trust information from news organizations and social media site are on half of republicans and republican leaning independents, 53%, now say they have at least some trust in the information they get from national news organizations, a 13% increase from september of

2024 when 40% of republicans said the same. trust among publicans and the organization they get from the national news media have declined overall and republican trust and other information sources is increased as well. they are now more likely than last year to say they have at least some trust in the information that comes from local news outlets, 75% vs. percent. republicans trusting social media has been increasing steadily since 2021 when 19% said they trusted the information that comes from social media at least somewhat. what do you think is behind some of those numbers? >> part of it is the election. in november, obviously president trump won in such a decisive way that i think republicans are a little competent. some of the shift of republicans having more trust out there, it's the similar type of thing

to the republicans trust that elections can be run fairly or not. cap after they lost in 2020, i would say that the republican trust in the republican trusted elections was record low. after 2024 they are probably back on the upswing. but i do think that also you were seeing what republicans would define as a news organization is probably a little bit different than what maybe democrats wait. republicans would consider us at breitbart to be the news and probably they would not consider cnn to be a news organization. host: we have another question from xp what is your opinion on fact checking media reports? why was there a push from the administration to stop fact checking efforts, does that concern you? guest: specifically the fact checking -- i don't know exactly

what you mean about a push from the administration. i think fact are great. we fact-check president trump, we fact-check republican leaders in congress, democrats, the media. i think fact-checks are fun in terms of stories. sometimes they are true. sometimes somebody says something that you think is not the most credible thing in the world and then you dig into it and it turned out to be true. trump does this quite a bit actually. he will say something a little bit edgy and you think there's no way that can be true and then you do a little bit of research and you find that it is. but we regularly do a lot of fact checking. like when we are covering state of the union or a debate night or something like that, we will regularly have a team of people. i don't know what you mean about

a push from the administration to get rid of fact-checks. host: the only thing i was able to find quickly related that was from the campaign, not from the administration, there were several incidents where the trump campaign pushed back against life fact checking during debates perhaps that is what they meant. guest: if they are putting it on screen on tv or something like that, i don't know if i agree with that. i don't think that is the right play. but if you want to do an article fact checking things i think that is great. host: pittsburgh, pennsylvania, line for independents. caller: good morning kimberly, thank you. matthew, i used to be a breitbart follower, i guess i still am, but i'm more of a tucker carlson fan. i'm 73 years old. i've followed tucker for 27 years on fox, when they fired

him i had watched. i don't even want the local news, i had watched anything since. i happened to see steve bannon last night giving a speech at hillsdale college. i think it is a college. i wanted to know, did you ever work with him, because i know he was at breitbart for a while. guest: i actually worked with both tucker and steve. i got my start as a reporter at daily caller for about three years when carlson was the editor-in-chief and then when steve bannon was running breitbart, i have been at breitbart for a little over 12 years now. i started here in december 2012. and for the several years leading up to the 2016 election when he would later go run the trump campaign in 2016, steve bannon was our executive chairman.

he's since gone on to launch his own. i know steve very well. i am on there pretty frequently over the last year or so. i think the world of steve. i/o a lot to him, he gave me a lot of shots over the course of my life. and i think he's doing some amazing stuff out there. host: next up is tina in california on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i'm calling to find out if mr. boyle believes that the 2020 election was fairly won. thank you. guest: so this is a more complicated answer than a yes or no. the way i would answer this question is that there were a lot of things that were done via executive action from democratic

governors in a lot of different states in terms of new stuff that they had never done before in terms of mail-in voting, in terms of ballot drop boxes. there were also hundreds of billions of dollars spent by people like mark zuckerberg on things like these drop boxes and mail programs. so would i argue that it was dominion machines or something like that? no. but do i think that there were some serious abnormalities in the way we conducted the election? absolutely. as part of the reason you saw a lot of the energy on one side or the other against this. you saw big protest movements. in 2020, a lot of angry people out there. we regularly cover protest movements. understanding what motivates people, what gets them focused on things.

a big part of the reason why i think you had both the blm riots and then later the january 6 stuff in early 2021 is because of the fact that people felt like they weren't getting listened to, and that is a big part of the problem and frankly across-the-board i think that is a big mistake. i would encourage people to go back and look at the stories that we did in the post-2020 election timeframe. we were very critical of people like elaine would who is going out there and making some outlandish claims, and we did some deep dive stories on him. we did articles about the january 6 stuff and the lead up to that because -- host: i can't help but notice that you referred to the blm riots and the january 6 stuff. do you think that -- guest: it was a riot at the capital. i'm not trying to not say that.

but the fact is that i do think that people, in fact, in the lead up to that we were actually very critical in the lead up to it. if you go back and look i personally even wrote some stories on breitbart that laid out they didn't have the votes. so even if they were going to do what they wanted to do, they didn't have the votes in congress anyway, the democrats did. but at the same time, there are in both cases, there's a lot of people out there who feel like they are not being listened to. this is part of the reason why i agreed to this show, because of the live callers. i think that is a really good thing. i do it radio show at breitbart. we take live callers regularly. some we agree with, some we do not. that is a big part of the responsibility of american journalists tend to be part of the responsibility of our

government and i think it's been a big failure of the establishment in both cases over the last several years across-the-board, and it's part of the reason why we have the messes that we have as a society. host: i wanted to ask you about a new york times story about how last week the justice department unveiled a revised regulation from leaked investigations which restores the ability of federal investigators to use court orders and warrants and subpoenas to go after reporter phone records, notes, or testimony under certain circumstances. what do you think of this policy? guest: it's complicated. there's a lot of leakers throughout the federal government that are not well-motivated. but at the same time i don't like the government going after journalists. i don't like that scene that happened. i don't like leakers, in the

sense of people that are inside the government leaking for political reasons or something like that, i don't think that's good. but at the same time, i don't like the government doing that type of thing either. i don't know. i'm not sold on it either way. host: earl is in indiana on the line for republicans. caller: yes, i honor this man here. he's coming out with the truth, which trump does. that people say he is a liar and a crook, i'm 88 years old. if these people could go back during the 30's and 40's and 50's, they realize what this country is. money does not get you into heaven.

god says the love of money is evil and that is what we've got right here in this country, that is what it is all about. they make their money to people that work for them, and they pay for them and they pay their taxes. if they didn't pay their taxes they would be in prison right now. so if you think the democrats can run this country, good luck to you. the worst thing i've seen in my lifetime, the most i ever made productive -- per hour was $10. host: i'm just wondering if you had a question for matthew as well. caller: yeah. do you think mr. trump is starting to do what is right for this country? that's what i want to know. guest: yeah, so i would say i do think so. i think that president is definitely trying to -- i've come to know him very well over

the last decade plus, i've interviewed and probably as much or almost as much as anybody else in the media. and i've talked to him when the cameras are off and the microphones are off and then gotten to know him pretty well. i think that his heart is in the right place, he really wants to do right by the country. he doesn't need any of this. he's a billionaire, he's got great properties around the world. he didn't need all of the attacks that have come after him. all the weaponization of the state and everything that he's gone through. but i do think that he's is identified a major problem and he sees those same problems and is trying to fix it. i think president trump is very focused on that and he wants to leave behind a better country than he was elected to lead. host: jeff is in hoboken, new jersey, line for independents. caller: thanks for taking my

call, i appreciate it. i would like to ask, we've been talking about independent outlets, this rift between netanyahu and trump, that trump doesn't want to feel like he is being manipulated, so now there is some kind of rift going on. events canceled his trip to israel. so i'd like to know what the speaker thinks about that, and also what you think about the fact that there is a lot of jewish people who think that this right wing jewish party with netanyahu, people like that are doing more harm to israel than doing good. those are my questions. guest: that question is probably the best news question of the day because i'm actually going to be publishing a piece later today about this. as i mentioned, i interviewed steve wycoff at the white house

on thursday. he published a couple of pieces from that. one that i have been published yet that will come out later today, i asked him about exactly this. because i had seen those reports in israeli media before i had done this interview and i asked him about these reports of a souring relationship. i've spoken with prime minister netanyahu, i interviewed him earlier in the year and president trump, and i don't believe those reports to be accurate. i asked steve that and he said that the relationship between the two countries, the u.s. and israel has never been stronger. as for the questions about the israeli government, i think prime minister netanyahu, first of all, he led israel for a very long time. i think he's faced some major challenges here. i think he's done a really remarkable job of steering the

country through these major moments, especially after what happened on october 7. i am not as dialed in on internal israeli politics, but i do think that he's a major leader and i think that he has really done some amazing things for israel. host: texas come alive for democrats. caller: yes, i wanted to ask you if you are one of those sycophants who praises the king when you are in a meeting, like one of those meetings. and also, are you a person that would like to do that when there is a -- what do you call it, do you praise the king all the time, as in trump? and also do you believe in due

process? and do you think that immigration, that immigrants bring something positive to the country? guest: so there's a bunch of questions there, so i will do my best to unpack them all. host: i believe number one is are you a sycophant. guest: no, i like to ask interesting, important questions. there's one i asked last week at the white house, these are questions a lot of other people and other media outlets are not asking of these folks. so i'm trying to get interesting answers and trying to use the access i've got to get answers and answer important questions. there is another question. host: about whether or not you are in the white house briefing room but you've kind of already addressed that. the third one was about due process and the value of immigrants which i think is particularly relevant given comments from stephen miller last week that the administration is looking into whether or not they could suspend habeas corpus for some immigrants.

guest: i don't know with regard to habeas corpus. obviously i've seen the same stuff that everybody else has. as for due process, every american citizen and legal immigrant should be afforded due process but people that broke our laws, illegal immigrants, they don't have constitutional rights. constitutional rights go to american citizens. they don't go to illegal aliens. illegal aliens do not get constitutional rights. they don't get due process. that's not how this system works. our constitution and our bill of rights protects american citizens. so for american citizens and those who follow our laws and came in legally, they should be afforded to process. but illegal aliens, no. as for the contribution of immigrants to american society, i think that immigrants are a huge part of their history and our culture.

they add a lot. legal immigrants, who came here legally at enormous amounts to our society, economy, culture. we applaud that. but at the same time, we should be having a conversation about -- first off, we're the most generous country on planet earth. we allow more than one million people legally every single year. but should we not have a conversation about who we should allow in and why? i think that is a fair question to have. and also in terms of illegal immigration, illegal immigration should be zero. there should be zero illegal immigrants in america. we shouldn't tolerate that, we shouldn't tolerate illegal immigration. most countries don't. so how we ever got to a place where we did and we allowed in millions of them, it makes no sense. but we should enforce our

immigration laws very aggressively, and we should be able to decide as a society who adds value to our country, and we should be able to make those decisions proactively. host: another on, can you please explain why every independent media outlet describes you as biased and not credible? i've posted several different independent source of the great news sources for both bias and honesty, you've been found lacking in independence and truth. guest: i would imagine they are referring to ones that are like new start or other places out there. many of them are funded by institutional left, by big tech companies in some cases. these are places that don't want us to succeed. again, i would challenge you to find something about any individual story. go read our site. read our content, listen to our interviews. let me know if you come to the same conclusion.

maybe you do, maybe you don't. but i think that our content speaks for itself and i'm very proud of it. there's a reason we continue to grow when these other places like the washington post and the new york times are suffering. host: thank you so much for your time this morning. matthew boyle is the washington bureau chief for breitbart news network. coming up, and about half an hour or so we are going to have a discussion on policy decisions that directly impact mothers. but first we are going to have open for them. you can start calling in now. the line for democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independent, (202) 748-8002. we will be right back. >> mccarthyism, whittaker

chambers, ethel rosenberg. the smith act, the hollywood 10. the joint anti-phases committee. the loyalty ploeger. book burning and communism. all subjects of controversy during the 30's, 40's and 50's here in the united states. a reporter and editor at the new york times has a fresh look at all of this. he writes in his preface that his grandfather who is a career fbi agent joined the bureau during world war ii and recounted stories of implementing loyalty tests for the federal government in the late 1940's. >> the making of modern america on this episode of book notes plus. with our host brian lamb. book notes+ is available wherever you get your podcast and on the c-span now app.

>> there are many ways to listen to c-span radio anytime, anywhere. the washington, d.c. area, listen on 90.1 fm. use the c-span now app or go online to c-span.org/radio. channel 455, tune in on your smart speaker by simply saying play c-span radio. washington journal daily at 7:00 a.m. eastern. listen to house and senate proceedings, committee hearings, news conferences and other public affairs events live throughout the day and for the best way to hear what is happening in washington with fast-paced reports, life interviews and analysis of the day, catch washington today, weekdays at 5:00 and 9:00 eastern. listen to c-span programs on c-span radio anytime, anywhere. c-span, democracy unfiltered. washington journal continues. host: welcome back. we are in open forum but before

we get to your calls i want to follow-up on a point raised in the last segment about the white house considering the ideas around suspending habeas corpus. let's read a bit of a usa today article about that. habeas corpus is used in federal courts under civil law to challenge a person's detention. stephen miller, a senior to the president who is answering questions about illegal immigration told reporters on may 9 that the trump administration is actively looking at suspending the constitutional right that allows people to challenge in court their detention. habeas corpus, latin for "you have the body" is used to determine if the government's detention of someone in prison legal according to the cornell law school legal information institute. the writ of habeas corpus is used in federal court under civil law to challenge a person's detention, commonly used by people imprisoned for challenging the conviction that led to their prison sentence.

so stephen miller made those comments on friday and let's listen to a bit of what he said. >> friends of trump talked about -- do you support this? >> the constitution is clear, the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended and a time of invasion plan but a lot of it depend. at the end of the day, congress passed immigration nationality which stripped the judicial branch of a jurisdiction. the congress actually passed this legislation. they passed a number of laws that say that article three courts aren't even allowed to be involved in immigration cases. many of you probably don't know this. are you familiar with the term

temporary protected status? by statute, the courts are stripped of jurisdiction from overruling a presidential determination or secretarial determination when the secretary of homeland security makes a determination. so when secretary noem terminated to ps for the illegal that biden flew into the country, when court stepped in they were violating exquisite language the car had enacted. so it's not just the courts at war with the executive branch. the courts are at war, these radical judges with the legislative branch as well. all of that will inform the choices the president of ultimately makes. host: a bit of history here is recapped by the new york times, habeas corpus has been suspended four times in the history of the u.s., most recently in hawaii after the attack on pearl harbor in 1941. each time authority said specific congressional statutes to justify the move, with the exception of one president,

abraham lincoln who suspended habeas corpus during the civil war while congress was not in session. his movements challenged and in 1863 congress passed a law giving him the explicit right to suspend habeas corpus for the duration of the hostilities. dan is in south carolina, line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning, kimberly. i am meaning to call him because i recognize you as the best host on washington journal. i am calling in, i support donald trump, but i am concerned about the statements that he made on thursday about a deal with the united kingdom. in fact, it's they have got two.

the eyes and cross the tease. --. the dot the i's and cross the t's/ something may fall through. i don't think we have a deal. i believe he made the statement said that he could calm down the stock market to reduce the volatility, which i believe the volatility has gone down some, but i also think that he did it because he wanted to give some ammunition to some of the other negotiations with other countries, and also to help out the security treasury, scott bessent and negotiators, trade negotiators. so i just wanted to clarify that

i just don't think we have an agreement yet. host: you are accurate that the white house did say that the u.s. and the u.k. did reach a historic trade deal, but then later issued more details that the deal is still being hammered out in the final ways, but some of the outlines that the white house released around it said that the deal includes billions of dollars for increased market access for american exports, especially in agriculture, that the u.k. would eliminate or reduce numerous nontariff barriers that unfairly discriminated against american product and that the trade deal would significantly expand u.s. market access in the united kingdom, creating 5 billion-dollar opportunities for new exports for u.s. farmers, planters and producers. this was the white house fact sheet about it. it was later clarified the deal has not been signed.

let's hear from joe on our line for independents. caller: good morning. i have called in on the independents, but i am actually a green member. i think there is an important lesson for the u.s. in the australian elections. they just threw out the coalition, which was the trump-light conservatives trying to get into power. the conservatives ran their entire campaign on nuclear energy. they said that is going to be the future of energy. australia is leading the world in wind and solar. they have 4 million solar roofs on houses and buildings. the conservatives pushing nuclear power were completely wiped out. they took an historic loss. the prime minister got reelected from the labour party. the reason is the labour party

stood up against all the lies against nuclear power the coalition were telling. one after another, they proved it was too expensive, too dangerous, too dirty. when the big lie the conservatives were lying on fell apart, all the other lies the conservative party were telling also felt apart and the whole coalition got someone out of office in australia. i think that is an important lesson for americans. when we are faced with the big lies, what the conservatives here are telling, if the opposition parties stand up and disprove the lies, the whole house of cards built on those lies will follow part. unfortunately, i do not see that happening with our current crop of politicians anywhere near that level. host: next is larry in cleveland, ohio, on our line for democrats. good morning, larry. caller: yes.

first battalion, second marine division. what is going on now is the presidency we do not worship and will not celebrate the parade for the president. thank you. host: amy is in leesburg, florida, on our line for republicans. good morning, amy. caller: good morning. i would like to bring up a couple of points. the reason biden chose harris for his vice president was for the demographics. i am from florida and someone else would have been a better choice. the reason he did not choose hers because she had a law enforcement background. no one brings up the fact biden had five college deferments. they are always talking about trump and his bone spurs or whatever it was, but how come no

one ever says anything about biden and his deferments? with the cia and fbi conspiring to say that the biden computer, hunter biden computer was not true, 15% 18% of people would have voted differently if they knew that was true. really, biden did not win that election legally. then he said he would not pardon his son, and he did. i would like to bring all these things out, that biden is not the man that you portray him to be. you know, plus, said elon musk bought trump the presidency. zuckerberg bought biden the presidency. that is all i have to say. host: just backing up some points amy raised. usa today has a fact-check on this story about biden and his vietnam deferments.

biden received multiple draft deferment from vietnam. the claim that former vice president, this was a 2020 story , vice president joe biden received five deferments from the vietnam war. biden received five student draft deferments any medical exemption, first as an undergraduate at the university of delaware and later as a law student at syracuse university. and after a medical exam in 1968, he received the one y classification which meant he could only be drafted in a national emergency. next is art in illinois on our line for independents. caller: good morning. i am so happy to be talking to you one more time. i just wanted to say that why i listen to this show and watch it is the people that go on there are very well educated with

things they want to talk about. my issues is that at the present time we are involved in the endgame to destroy this republic. people involved in the alienation of our country from every other ally, pursuing on its own, picking up impetus. it is starting to become more and more apparent to me that what they are trying to do is make this the richest banana republic in history. i am really afraid we are going to lose more of our freedoms as this goes on. they are pushing the envelope as far as they can, as far as our ability to be free. they already are attacking the first amendment in little ways that turn to big issues. i see it happening every day in what i see.

thank you. host: next is david in tucson, arizona, on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. happy mother's day to all the mothers out there. i have a two part question which to me is yes or no. it seems like mr. paul will is kind of prejudiced -- mr. boyle is kind of prejudiced. host: i'm going to pause you there because mr. boyle is no longer on set with us. caller: he seems biased, like he is buddies with trump. i don't think any of the rioters should have been released. it was the republicans in texas that sent all of the illegal events into the middle of our country and up to the north. they want to put it on the democrats?

they are the ones that put them up there so they could look good by getting them out and giving them money. that is my statement. happy mother's day. host: group and is in austin, texas, on the line -- ruben is in austin, texas, on the line for republicans. caller: thank you for taking my call. i love this program. it is so informative. i was calling in regards to january 6. why does anybody bring it up that nancy pelosi refused the 10,000 national guard's. why does anybody bring it up that when they tracked down all the people there, they immediately picked up all the cell phones to erase or have control of any footage recorded

of those biden insurgents that were encouraging all the people in the rioting state of mind and encouraging them to do all of that. why hassan anybody looked into that and brought it out -- why has it anybody looked into that and brought it out? that is my question. host: the fact-checks related to january 6, including this from the associated press contradicts the idea nancy pelosi refused national guard support. trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed he offered national guard troops to the capitol and his offer was rejected. he previously said he signed an

order for 20,000 troops to go to the capitol. he issued no such order or formal request before or during the rioting and the guards' arrival was delayed for hours as pentagon officials deliberated over how to proceed. max's in georgia on the line for independents. caller: thank you for taking my call. happy mother's day to all the mothers out there. mothers have a full-time job to raise children. my wife has been a great mother to my kids. whether you are a stay-at-home mom or you have a job outside the home, if you are a mother, thank you for the contributions. host: what is your wife's name? caller: hopkins.

host: happy mother's day to her. caller: thank you. in the bible, paul and timothy's mother had a huge impact raising him up in christ. i want to say happy to mothers. you women are appreciated. that is all i have to say today. thank you for taking my call. everyone have a blessed day. host: joe is in minnesota on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: yeah, i would like to speak on the tariffs. these are nothing more than a tax they want to leave and permanently so they can tax us people and give the money to the rich under a $4.5 trillion tax break. this is ridiculous. and he cannot even get that right. that is all i have got to say. host: jerry is in broadway,

virginia, on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: yes. good morning. can you hear me? host: yes. caller: democrats keep yapping about due process. yes, over 20 million illegal immigrants were denied there due process by the biden administration. law clearly states when you cross our border, you shall be detained until you have your due process. host: ok. next is mike in rockford, illinois, on our line for independents. good morning. caller: good morning, kimberly. five things the media totally whiffed on. elon the phenom bought twitter for $48 billion, sold it to

himself or $30 billion -- for $30 billion. $18 billion difference. are we giving him $18 billion write off for his loss? hand on the bible, there is more there. if you are not sworn in, you are not the president. asked obama. he had to get sworn in in the oval office after a hiccup. the president did not put his hand on the bible pretty i think you will use it as a loophole he needs to be sworn in and obama should pick up the cart for it and push it. the next one is melania, and jill and joe, could melania be working as a glorified dog walker for putin?

we totally missed out on the biggest one of all. these trade deals, these tariffs are treaties. in our constitution, treaties are specifically mentioned. two thirds of the senate. now he has treaties he is signing as executive orders and his big beautiful bill which i call the arnold palmer bill. and we are the blowup doll. host: let's hear from ernestina on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. happy mother's day to everyone. they need to impeach trump. he has alzheimer's and they know it. he is not running anything. somebody else is running it. when trouble comes down, he never gets blamed. with the people he has doing

these things, they the ones get blamed. what else i want to say. they keep talking about president biden let his son. when president biden was president, he say he would not release his son. but as soon as he did not be president, of course, he was going to release his son. what did they think trump was going to do to that man's son if he had not stayed locked up? that would not have been right. and another thing. putin. i wish i would pull up 1984 in google. they made an agreement he would never go to ukraine, never. it was an agreement back then. trump need to apologize to ukraine president. he was rude and a bully.

that is one thing children do not need to look at. they do not need to learn how to bully people and disrespect people like he and his vice did. that was wrong! host: edward is in new york on our line for republicans. caller: good morning, happy mother's day to everyone, especially my wife, grace. to follow that young lady there, i have a whole bunch of things to say but i am going to cut it short. i want people to have a chance. all we have to do is look back to 2017. look back to the last trumpet era. i could make a living. i was proud of my country. they were having oil that they could help wes or countries -- lesser countries.

trump is the best president we have ever had. the others try. they try very hard. he stuck his neck out even to get shot at twice. there are people out there that love him very much. i am one of them. i think he is great for our country. if people just remind themselves that he is trying to make up for what president biden did, he is trying to make up for what president biden did in the terrible $35 trillion deficit. trump is really great. thank you. host: thanks to everybody who called in for open forum. next, we are going to hear from kristin rowe-finkbeiner of the group momsrising who will be here to discuss public policy challenges facing mothers and families. we will be right back. ♪

>> tonight former ohio governor john kasich talks about the work done by religious institutions and people of faith in the united states, including combating homelessness, hunger, human trafficking, and other issues. >> i do think it is not critical to count the number of times we go to church. but at the same time, i think we need to realize those institutions are sort of like, when you think about running for office, you need a clubhouse to gather. i look at the churches as an opportunity for people to go in there with their ideas of changing the world and to be able to find supports, material support, some psychological

support. i also believe you can get more things done working with others than just working alone. >> john kasich with his book, "heaven help us," tonight on c-spa's "q&a." you can listen on the c-span now app or wherever you get your podcasts. looking to contact your members of congress? c-span is making it easy for you with our 20 congressional directory. get contact information. it contains bio and contact information for every house and senate member of the 119th congress. the president's cabinet, state agencies, and govnors. thdirectory costs $32.95. every purchase helps support

c-span's nonprofit operations. order your copy today. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. here to talk about mother's day and the policies affecting mothers, we are joined by kristin rowe-finkbeiner, executive director and ceo of momsrising. welcome to "washington journal." guest: thanks for having me ended morning. host: good morning and happy mother's day. your cofounder of momsrising. talk about what it is and how it started. guest: it is for moms and anybody who ever had a mom. we like to say it is for anybody th a belly button. we started back in mayf 2006 to help increase economic security and build a nation where every family can thrive. host: who are your members? you mentioned you are for

everybody, but who makes up most of your membership? how many people, how are you funded? guest: i love all these questions. it is a beautiful story. momsrising started with one mom talking to another mom, talking to another mom. all over time, through moms talking to moms, we are actively 1.2 million members. we have members in every state in the nation. recently, we figured out one in every 300 people are an active member of momsrising in america. we are strong and rising and growing. it is really about looking around and saying it should not be this hard to be a mom in america. what are the steps we need to make so we can increase both economic security, make sure moms can go to work, contribute to our community's, raise our kids, and make sure our economy is strong at the same time? host: what do you see some of the biggest public policy challenges facing mothers in the united states today? guest: that is the best

question. what we hear from members and see in the research is quite similar. in fact, it is the same. moms and people raising kids need access to affordable, high-quality childcare. childcare in most states in the nation cost more than college sprayed we are in a bind because parents cannot afford to pay anymore to have childcare for their kids. childcare workers are some of the lowest paid workers in the united states and we cannot afford to pay childcare workers any less. we need to solve the childcare crisis. that is number one on the list. next, we have an issue everybody knows about which is health care. everybody gets sick and everybody should have a chance to get better. we have moms, dads, parents, people across the nation rising to make sure people have access to health care. with moms in particular, there is an incredibly bad maternal health crisis in america that a lot of people do not know about.

the united states is the only industrialized nation where maternal morbidity, dying in childbirth, is going up and not down. black women are three times as likely to die in childbirth. we have a maternal health crisis happening as part of our health care crisis. we also have a reproductive health care crisis. access to reproductive health care has gone down significantly which is also a crisis for moms. health care over all is a big umbrella moms care about. i have a list, i have a list. we also in the united states of america lack paid family and medical leave after a new baby or child arrives or if a serious health crisis strikes ourselves or a close loved one. what is that about? all other countries on planet earth except six, and the united states is one of them, have access to paid family medical leave so we can recover after a

new baby arrives. most people are being pushed back within the labor force within weeks of having a baby which is far too soon to have that bonding and recovery just part of the reason we have a maternal health crisis. we know we can do better. many states have passed a policy and it is boosting businesses, families, and our economy. i have a longer list. my list is 12 policies. but i will stop there so people do not get bored with me going on with the list. the key thing is the policy solutions we have at the ready to move forward have been tried and tested in many states and across the world. we know we can pass those policies here. they are very highly supported by democrats, republicans, independents, everybody alike across the country. we need to keep pushing to make sure they happen, especially on mother's day. host: momsrising organized a

rally at the capitol last week. what was the message for that rally? guest: thank you for bringing that up. it was such a fun rally. we had kids blowing bubbles, moms sharing stories. what we are telling congress, especially the republican leadership in congress, is we do not want more tax breaks for people already very wealthy like elon musk paid for by giant cuts to the policy i was just talking about that our priorities for families. right now on the table, there is a republican led push to cut $880 billion over 10 years out of medicaid. that would be a disaster. medicaid is part of 40% of all bursts in america, part of 62% of all nursing home stays. it is part of one in three people who have disabilities' access to health care. medicaid is what keeps the doors

of rural hospitals of all sizes so anybody with a crisis can go to the emergency room. you can tell i am passionate about this because i have a long list. a lot of people do not realize but medicate -- medicaid brings us new doctors. medicaid covers the residency programs in medical school so we can have the doctor pipeline opened. when you look at the impact of what 800 -- $880 billion in cuts to medicaid would be, it is enormous. many people do not realize medicaid at the state level is called lots of different things. i am zooming into you from washington state, it is called applecare here. other states have similar names that identify with the states they live in. medicaid is called many different things depending on where you live. many people do not realize how much they are reliant on it. it is woven throughout our health care system. we do not want congress to cut

medicaid. that was the big message we were sending this week in washington, d.c., from moms across the nation. similarly, we do not want cuts in head start. it is an essential childcare program for america and is on the chopping block as well in president trump's proposed budget for next year. here we go into the childcare issue which i think is so important to think about. parents need childcare to go to work. kids need childcare to thrive. childcare workers need a good childcare program and able to stay in that job, in that profession, so we can have consistency in education and people can earn living wages. it is an issue where sometimes people say maybe what is going on with moms in the labor force, and this is a really important backdrop. three quarters of moms are in the labor force. three out of four families need the wages of moms to make ends meet.

we have rising costs of eggs, food, shoes, all the things are rising in cost right now. even before the rising costs happen, three out of four families absolutely needed those wages of moms to keep a roof over kids' heads and food on the table. but if we do not have access to policy like childcare, head start, medicaid, and the child tax credit expansion, we get pushed out of the labor force. host: your group also highlighted that last week, on tuesday, may 6, momsrising highlighted what you call moms equal pay day. we have some numbers based on that. white moms are paid $.74 for every $1's paid to white dads. black moms are paid $.56 for every $1. latino moms are paid $.51.

native american moms are paid $.50. why is it important to highlight these numbers? guest: i am so glad you raised that. those numbers are shocking. people watching and listening might be like, what? we have that big of a wage gap right now? the answer is yes, and it is getting worse. for the first time in decades, the wage gap just expanded between moms and non-moms and women and men. i love numbers, so warning, numbers are my favorite thing. let's look at what is happening with the numbers overall. 86% of women in america do become moms by the time they are 44 years old. we are talking about a huge number of people being impacted both by the mom wage gap as well as by what is happening over all with wage gaps. when we look at those numbers, we see we have something going on where we have both family status discrimination along with

structural racism. you see those two things coming together in the wage gaps. those wage gaps are real. there are rooms full of studies. i bring books about this. literally, rooms full of studies over and over again that show the wage gaps are real. that is the first question i usually get, are the wage gaps real? yes. one of my favorite studies that is depressing to share is cornell university and stanford university did a study of two pieces of paper. there is not a person involved. the two pieces of paper had equal resumes and job experiences. if you had the one change that somebody was a mom, the mom was hired 100% less of the time then the non-mom and was offered $11,000 lower salary while the dad got a dad boost and was paid $6,000 more.

right now, we are seeing maternal discrimination in that particular study. why is that happening and how do we solve it? that is usually the next question i get. question i get. in very good news, solutions are possible. we started up the segment talking about what did the policies that mom and people want the most? the policies that moms and people want the most also happy to help close the wage gap in very big ways. study after study here too shows if we had paid family medical leave after a new baby arrived so there was job attachment and people did not get pushed out of their jobs when they had a baby, that would help close the wage gap. combine that with access to a vertebral childcare, access to health care, and access to earned sick days as well as with policies like the paycheck fairness act which is proposed in congress, and then you get really into closing that wage gap in a very big way. it is going to take a couple

policies combined to help really start closing the wage gap, but there are over 2000 bills proposed in congress each year. they passed hundreds of bills a year. we can do a couple policies combined to help close the wage gap. and here is the really good news. even if you are not a mom, even if you don't care about moms, closing the wage gap helps you. because we live in a country where our gdp, where our economy is based on consumer spending. women and moms make 80% of our consumer spending decisions. last i looked, our gdp was actually 74% based on consumer spending decisions. so we are making the majority of consumer spending decisions in an economy based on consumer spending, but if we don't have funds to spend, if we don't have money in our wallet to get those groceries, to get the shoes when our kids' feet grow and change sizes, to put a roof over our

head to help stimulate the economy, then we all lose out, but if we have pay parity, studies show we would increase gdp by three to five percentage points and 50% of kids or more would come out of poverty, so this is a win-win-win-win, pushing these policies we are talking about forward actually does boost businesses and the economy overall. host: we will be taking questions for kristin rowe-finkbeiner of momsrising. for democrats, you can call (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you would like to skip all of those categories and just identify as a mom, we have a special line for our moms this morning, (202) 748-8003. let's hear from a mom. jo is in iowa. good morning, and happy mother's day. good morning. can you hear us?

caller: yes, i'm here. sorry about that. host: that's ok. go ahead with your question. caller: just another mother distracted for a moment. host: you all are busy. caller: i want to mention i was a great-granddaughter, a granddaughter, a daughter, and i experienced the loss of my grandmother in 2021, the loss of my dad in 2023, and now my dad is ailing as well. what we are experiencing all as mothers and women should be taken into consideration for everything else that we do and how important these programs are to us. my children had the privilege of using headstart. if they did not, i don't think they would have graduated, one of them summa cum laude, and also my other younger one

graduating college as well. if we did not have that headstart, and i just want to say that is a reflection on our population. if people like the ones that are in office now condemn that, they are just making everything worse, harder for everybody else not to have these people who are educated that can participate in society. i also wanted to make a note if i could on medicaid in general. also something that seems to be that they are threatening to take away. yes, it is all the things she said, and i found it out the hard way by caring for and participating in the care of my elders. but i will also note some people do not know this that most of the time when a person receives medicaid, they are signing something, whether it is in the younger years up into their 80's

and 90's in a care home that they are giving up their entire estate and home so when they pass away, the state gets to recoup their home in their state to pay for the medicaid. so either way, medicare, medicaid, we the people who are working all our lives for this are paying into the system one way or another. it is not the budget in which it is being canceled by doge. where is that money going, anyway? i would like to know that. but thank you very much for your time. bye-bye. guest: i love everything that our caller just raised right now. and one of the points i want to double down on and really look into is what was just said about headstart. when we look at studies of headstart, having access to headstart definitely helps kids, definitely helps moms, dads, and parents, and it helps taxpayers.

we just heard a listener share that because of headstart, kids got a great start and were able to continue on in education and continue to be thriving adults. this is exactly what we see in studies too. in fact, studies show that for every one dollar taxpayers put into programs like headstart and childcare, we get back at least seven dollars later. there are many studies that show we get even more like $20, so i am giving you the conservative estimate of every one dollar in, we get back about seven dollars later, and why? it is exactly whatever listener just said. fewer need for greater petitions, programs that cost even more money, and those taxpayer savings go on and on and on, so when we are talking about making short-term cuts, and by we i mean republicans in congress and donald trump, to programs like headstart, we actually are undercutting ourselves and our economy in the long run, and it is costing us

significantly more in the future. i thought that was so important that your listener raised that. the other thing that the listener raised is something happening to families across america as well and we hear about it every day. it is people in the sandwich generation, in what we call the panini, the sandwich being squished between two generations, caring for the younger generation, and caring for the older generation. so many moms, dads, and parents are in that right now where we have a crunch where both eldercare and childcare are too often out of reach in cost and at the same time we have to be in the labor force to help put that food on the table, the roof over the heads, so i am really glad the sandwich of caring for younger and older was raised. and then there was the budget. what is happening with the budget? love that too. i was like, wow, this is a great caller. the question that was raised that i loved hearing about, thank you so much, was this is our money. these are our taxpayer dollars.

our taxpayer dollars that we are paying in should most definitely help us have roads to drive on to help us have clean water coming out of our faucets, and help us have that infrastructure that makes work possible. that infrastructure is the care infrastructure. so as we talked about at the beginning of this segment, moms, dads, parents cannot go to work just like we need to build bridges and roads to drive on, we have to build that care infrastructure so we could go to work, and doing that means childcare, paid family medical leave health care, as well as we did not talk about this yet, but snap and nutrition programs and other programs we have been talking about so we can all thrive. host: my is in centerville, virginia, on our line for independents. good morning, myron. caller: good morning, and happy mother's day to you, your guest today, and all of the mothers out there, and especially all

the mothers on c-span's "washington journal" behind the scenes bringing us this program today. i just wanted to share an illuminating point. in early 2000, i was divorced and was awarded primary custodial care of two great kids. and it was during that time as a single dad that i had an incredibly newfound appreciation for all that mothers do. especially single mothers. when i was a single dad, i remember calling my mom, my former brother-in-law, and many mothers that i knew. i wholeheartedly thanked them for everything they did as moms. sorry for cracking. but thank you, and i will listen to your response off-line. guest: oh my gosh, sending you the biggest hugs. inc. you for all you have done and for calling in. i think happy mother's day to everybody out there, including the single dads. i am just going to say it. it is hard.

right now, we have a significant number of families who are raising children as single parents. in fact, a johns hopkins university study recently said that in the millennial population, 56% of parents are unmarried. that does not mean they are not partnered, but it means that when we are working on the public policies that lift families, businesses, and our economy, and we just talk for a little bit about how these policies we are talking about lift businesses and the economy and we can talk a little bit more about that because i think it is an important aspect, but we are also making sure we have policies that reflect and respect who we are as a nation, and who we are as a nation includes a lot of single parents . single parents and parents, i am somebody called on the independent line, are not democrat, republican, or independents. everyone is having babies across all political parties. when we look at the polling for the policies we have been talking about him access to health care, access to medicaid them access to childcare

including headstart, access to paid family medical leave when a new baby arrives or a serious health crisis strikes, those types of policies are supported across the political spectrum by democrats, republicans, independents alike. in fact, 76% of truck voters actually support those policies. but unfortunately, while we have those policies supported so much across the country and we have stories about how these policies matter so much from every state in the nation, in washington, d.c., inside that beltway bubble right now, republican leadership and donald trump are trying to cut and undermine those policies in order to paper more tax breaks for people who are already wealthy like elon musk, so on this mother's day, we across the political spectrum are rising to say hello, donald trump, president trump, hello, republicans in congress, please do not cut these policies that allow us to thrive, allow our businesses to prosper, and allow

our economy to be strong, especially when we have rising costs. thank you so much for sharing your story and all you have done. host: speaking of the trump administration, last month the white house sounded the alarm on climbing mortality rates and have encouraged parents to become parents with $5,000 baby bonuses and classes to help women track their menstrual cycles. what are your responses to some of these suggested solutions? guest: honestly, the response to these adjusted solutions at the same time the trump white house and republicans in congress are literally proposing gutting medicaid and childcare and other programs we actually need was that it was insulting. here is why it is insulting. when we have an actual crisis of motherhood, businesses, families, the economy happening in america, it is insulting to moms to say we are going to

solve the fertility crisis by telling you about your menstrual cycles. we know about our menstrual cycles. we also note childcare costs more than college in most states, and that is the crisis. it is insulting to say we are going to give you a one time baby bonus one republicans in congress and donald trump have undercut the monthly child tax credit extension, which was based on how many kids are in each family and was proven to boost the economy and our country because we had it for a short period during the pandemic. it is insulting to have these policies proposed one we have this actual emergency happening and we know the solutions. other countries, including many places in the united states of america that are not in other countries have passed these policies, and we have shown that it helps businesses, helps our economy, and helps our family to have this set of policies, childcare, health care, paid family medical leave that

republicans in washington, d.c., are undercutting. so it is a problem when we have donald trump having these tariffs, for example, that are really negatively impacting the cost of baby products. we have had an analysis done recently, and the cost of baby products that are absolutely necessities like car seats and baby bottles and everything you need to raise a kid, high chairs, are going up astronomically right now due to the trump tariffs. so to say we will give you a baby bonus, it does not cover the cuts we are getting. the baby bonus does not cover the cuts in medicaid, the cuts in the child tax credit, the cuts in childcare, the cuts in the costs we are seeing in our family budgets each month because of the tariffs. so that's my response. you can tell i am passionate, getting a little hot. host: kay is in pennsylvania and called in on our line for moms. happy mother's day.

caller: thank you, guys. my question is, i am all for this. i am not against it, but what are you willing to cut? do you want to cut foreign aid? what are you willing to cut? four do you want to raise the taxes up to 25% or 50%? i am not against you, but we cannot have free everything, free this, free that. i am for it. i am for free stuff, but somebody has to pay, so i would like to know what are we eliminating in the budget to pay for this? guest: that is such a good question, and thank you so much for calling in. in this situation we are in right now, we are dealing with cuts in these programs comes of these programs we have right now are not enough. i will just say it. we have insufficient health

care, insufficient childcare, and we don't have paid family medical leave yet, so we are in an insufficient place, and the cuts that are being proposed to our insufficient access to these programs are in order to pay for more tax breaks for people who are already wealthy so my answer to the question is don't give more tax breaks to people who are already wealthy. make people and corporations that are already wealthy pay their fair share. there are many really wealthy people who are paying far less in taxes than all of us listeners right now as a proportion of their income. so we need to make a fair taxation system and then we can pay for all of this. it is not actually that difficult. we are not asking for the world. in fact, i wish right now i was asking for universal health care, but no, instead i am saying do not cut $880 billion out of the medicaid program we have right now, which actually should be expanded, not cut

entirely. so the good news is that it is possible to not make these cuts. the bad news is we actually need to do expansion after this, not steady-state. host: speaking of medicaid, we had a text message from judith kristin rowe-finkbeiner for bringing up gender inequity and competition for equal work. just to clarify, medicare is the largest sourcef funding for graduate medical education, medicaid is also a contributor, but not as much as medicare, and i am guessing she is following up on your point about it being the pipeline for new doctors. guest: yeah. medicaid pays a significant portion of the residency program permitted medicare is also a national health care program that usually helps older adults, but also is woven throughout over health care system as well, so i am glad she was both. there are two, medicare and

medicaid. she is exactly right. host: larry is in north carolina on our land for independents. good morning, larry. caller: good morning. happy mother's day, all. the scenario i like to bring up is i was an educator for 35 years, worked at a private school, and both my department chair was a woman and the principal at the school was a woman, and they made quite a bit more money than i did, and kudos to them. i really want to say there are women out there that make a good bit of money and i am happy for that. what i would like to bring up though is the scenario you brought up with food prices. food prices skyrocketed about two and a half to three years ago. big box dorsal peanut butter and $1.87 for a 40 ounce jar.

during the last administration, at the end of the administration , it was at $3.98. where was your pushback then? that is what i would like to know. plus, one other thing. where do you stand with all of the transgender scenario with women in sports. ? thank you very much for your time. guest: thank you. i have always been worried about food prices, so i am glad you brought that up, and the fact of the matter is skyrocketing costs have long been a problem for families, which is why we absolutely need the care infrastructure, so people can go to work, so people can raise their kids, so people can contribute to their communities. those policies we have been talking about and we'll talk a little bit more in a moment. what has happened though is donald ran his candidacy although ringo's food prices that you rightly named as going

up, and instead of lowering the food prices when president trump came into office, the rates of price increase for food, for goods, and all the things we need to live actually skyrocketed, and increased rates. and instead of saying this is a problem, president trump just last week said just deal with it. so just last week i was totally shocked when president trump said, for example, 11-year-old girls, which is a little bit out of touch, have $20 and 250 pencils so they can deal with less. i was like, wait, who has 200 dollars and 250 pencils? our request to the president of the united states and republicans in congress is to look at what is happening to their constituents, democratic

constituents, republican constituents, independent constituents. look what is happening with rising costs and what is happening with the impact of eviscerating or cutting programs like medicaid and headstart and snap that actually allow us to put food on the table and a roof over kids' heads. and note the negative impact of cuts on those programs actually is significantly more in republican states. for example, medicaid is 30% of many republican states' overall budgets because of the way it works and because of what it is named after, so when we look at the impact, we are seeing a disproportionate negative impact expected on republican areas. so one of the things when we think about these programs, sometimes it is easier with a story. people say, do not talk about so many numbers. numbers are so hard to follow, and i am so sorry they are. so i will share a little bit

about me and a personal story to share why these issues are so important and a-frame of an actual person. when i had my son, i actually was raised by a mom who was primarily single when i was growing up, and she worked really hard to put food on the table, and she was there for us, and she really taught us all the value of being in the labor force. so i always planned to stay in the labor force. so i had my son and he had a primary immune deficiency when he was born. it was an unplanned health emergency. i did not know that much about any of these policies, and i did not actually know i did not have paid family medical leave. i had a baby with an unplanned health emergency, and you know what happened? i immediately was pushed out of the labor force and lost my job because i had to care for a very sick baby. now you have a very sick baby and it is very hard software infant childcare to get back in the labor force.

infant childcare for one you cannot get because of insurance until the babies are six weeks old and many areas. and for two, that is the most expensive part of childcare, so that is -- so it is hard to get back in the labor force especially if you have a high needs baby. you end up pushing people out of the labor force. again, 80% of the -- 84% of the women have a baby so this is not a small number of people that this happens two. people get pushed out of the labor force because we don't have these policies and have a very hard time getting back in because the childcare costs more than college. you face that just when you don't have income to pay for it in many instances, and that is where we get that domino effect of not having the care infrastructure, and why we need not one policy but multiple policies as the infrastructure of our nation. host: let's see if we can get a couple more folks in the last few minutes. fran is in independence, missouri, and also a mom. happy mother's day. caller: happy mother's day to

you and every other mother out there. i agree with so many things you have to say. i was raised by a single mother. i was a single mother for quite a while with my two sons. and now, i have been through the welfare system. i have done all that, and now i am disabled and on medicaid and medicare. and i am so terrified if i lose my coverage that there is not going to be anything there, and i am worried about what will happen to me when i get older and my boys are not going to be able to look after me. what is going to happen? but the best way we can deal with this is instead of us lowering tariffs on rolls-royces, why don't we worry about lowering the tariffs on things that our young babies

need, our children? i don't have a rolls-royce. i can't afford one, so i really don't care about that. i care about food and clothing. i have a two and a half-year-old granddaughter. i am afraid what the world will be like for her because now i am hearing they want to know when we are having our periods. that is wrong. that is nobody's business but you and your doctor, not the government. i think they are coming in too far into our lives and hurting us more than they are helping moment congress, that is where the waste, fraud, and abuse is at. they are not doing anything and they are being paid to do something and they are not doing it, so we need to start pulling the rug out from underneath them. guest: those are excellent points. the role back in productive health care has been intense and

damaging. as we talked about earlier mobile internal -- earlier, maternal morbidity is going up at a fast pace in the united states of america and we are the only industrialized nation where that is happening. it does not have to be this way. and we have both a rollback in access to abortion care and just a listeners know of a seven out of 10 people who need and have abortions are already bombs, so that is a very important aspect of reproductive health care that has been rolled back, and as that has been rolled back so has access to ob/gyns and all kinds of reproductive health care. it is a very, very, very trying time in our nations history right now for people in america, so thank you for raising that. host: on the issue of abortion, rich in kingsport, tennessee, respondi tyou saying that president trump' suggestions to increase bthates were insulting. what is insulting is a person

purporting to representom even as she supports the execution of millions of uor humans, thus preventing them from becoming mobs. that is an oxymoron. guest: i really think that everybody should be able to decide if, when, and how many children they have on their own with their family and their doctor. it is not just me who thinks that. in fact, when you look at the polling of the united states of america, the majority of people think that is a personal decision with your family, faith, and dr. and -- and doctor . so to be, taking that choice away from people is outrageous. host: next up is john in el paso, texas, on our line for democrats. good morning, john. caller: morning. mothers have to go shopping and figure out how to feed the family with their budget. the same thing happened with southwest airlines after 9/11.

they realized passengers were not flying anymore and they did not want to lose their airline, so the ceo said nobody would lose their job if they cut everybody's salary 10%. that was from the ceo all the way down to the last person rotating attire. they got through it great. i want to see they do that with the government if that is our biggest problem, our deficit, and not our poor moms. guest: thank you. one of the things about this moment is we have the solution of not giving more tax breaks to mega-wealthy people like elon musk who are donald trump's friends and big corporations. we had a listener just call in and said stop giving breaks on rolls-royce and putting more cost on things like baby strollers and car seats, so we don't have to to do what is happening right now.

by week, i mean the republicans in congress and donald trump don't have to cut all that they are suggesting because right now they could just have a fair taxation system, and we could get through this together as a nation in a very solid way that does actually lift our economy. we have not talked about this much yet. all of these programs, even snap, which is food stamps, have a high return on investment from taxpayers because of what we talked about earlier, which is what runs our economy. our consumer spending runs our economy so for example, when we have snapped, which is food stamps, one republican study said that for every one dollar of taxpayer money that goes in, we get back $1.79 later. that is a lot and by later, it is immediate. if you need to put food on the table for your family, for yourself, you will immediately go to the grocery store and spend the snap money, which then

helps the grocery store workers, farmers, truckers who drive the food around, and the trains, and all of the transportation. it has a ripple effect and is positive in our economy because the money is immediately spent. but on the other hand, when we give tax breaks to people who are already wealthy like elon musk like mark zuckerberg,, like all of the people who are donald trump's friends that we see standing with him when we give those people more tax breaks, you know what they do? they lock it up in a bank. it does not come out of that bank generally and fuel economy, so those funds when you give textbooks to people who are already wealthy and corporations already doing really well get locked up and do the opposite fueling our economy. they just kind of sucked the economic engine out of our economy. so the answer to the idea of how we save money is we have a solution. we need republicans in congress and we need donald trump stop the tax breaks they are trying to expand for the very wealthy and just go ahead and not undercut american families by eviscerating programs like

medicaid, headstart, snap, and more. host: that is all the time we haveor this segment good thank you so much, kristin rowe-finkbeiner, who is the executive director and ceo of momsrising. thank you for your time this morning. guest: thank you so much, and happy mother's day to everyone. host: and thank you to everybody who called in today for our show. we will be back tomorrow morning with another edition of "washington journal" at 7:00 a.m. eastern. once again, happy mother's day to all, especially my mom, linda adams. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪