♪ th it the biggest climate action yet by president biden. s from gasolinewe want to know from you do you agree with this idea of phasing out gas powered vehicles. if youn us in a text at (202) 748-8003. include your first name, city and state. or go to facebook.com/c-span or post on x with the handle @cspanwj. the epa administrator michael regan announcing this new rule from the epa video, from their agency. [video] >> to announce the strongest pollution technology standards ever finalized in the united states history. [applause]

these technology standards for malaier's 2027 through 2032 will avoid 7 billion tons of carbon pollution. is four times the total carbon pollution from the entire transportation in the year 2021. transportation is emissions and thanks to these new technology standards not only are we restoring america's position as a global leader against the fight for climate change, we are protecting the health of communities while doing so. cleaner vehicles and lower emissions mean so much to the people across this country. it means fewer hospital visits, fewer premature deaths, fewer illnesses like lung cancer and heart disease. it means more healthy children and a healthier nation. it also means new opportunities. we are witnessing a technological revolution driven by the market.

folks, this technology neutral and performance-based standard gives the auto industry the flexibility to choose the combination of pollution control technologies best suited for their customers. let me be clear. whether it is battery electric, plug-in hybrid, advanced hybrid, or cleaner gasoline vehicles we understand con choice is paramount. the timing could not be more perfect. new technologies have been advancing rapidly. battery costs are declining consumer interest in ev's is increasing, and industry is investing hvily in the epa is not just supporting this momentum. we are providing regulatory certainty for industry innovation. if history is any indication we know strong standards can and will be achieved through american manuf and with good paying american jobs. host: from the amount of protection -- environment of

protection agency announcing this new rule to boost e vehicles in the country. take a look at sales in 2023. 1.2 million total ev's were sold. 7.6 percent of total car sales. that is up from 5.9% in 2022. bloomberg has put this chart together and they show there is now a slowing of the purchasing of battery electric vehicles. you can see where the rise over the years and quarters between the third quarter ofth of 2023 there has been a decline. esident's initis powelet' caller: hi. host: what do you think/ -- thank? -- think? caller: we live in upper michigan where it is very cold and i don't biggest practical. they are not reliable.

for somebody on a fixed income like social security is basically unaffordable. the infrastructure cannot support it. there is no charging stations. they need to solve those problems. for electricity, 8% of electricity is produced from coal. it is not good for the environment. host: sandra's thoughts opposing. it washington, d.c., also opposing. caller: good morning. my issue is the last caller. there is no infrastructure to support these vehicles. if you are trying to do a cross-country trip that is not going to be attainable you will have to adjust exactly where it is you are trying to go. i live on the east coast. for us it is fine. astructure is there. rural amefr.ktnext tip put the infrastructure

ce mcture in place. that is my issue. host: this is likely to congress and litigation that this will likely go before the courts. this new rule by the biden administration. kathy in pennsylvania also opposing. caller: good morning. my thing is if joe biden wants us all to have electric vehicles that he ought to lead the charge . his entire entourage vehicles should all be electric. host: kathy in pennsylvania with her point and opposition. -- in opposition. we have heard a lot of opposition already on the phone lines. if you support we want to hear from you. your line is opposing calling in at (202) 748-8001. electric vehicles, those that

own electric vehicles call us at (202) 748-8002. from axios's rep moderating the pace of ev adoption in 2027 through 2030 was the right call because it prioritizes more reasonable electrification targets in the next few very critical years of the ev transition. that is from the president and ceo for alliance of automated innovation. to advise time for public charging to come online and the industrial incentives and policies of the inflation reduction act to do their thing. national climate advisor touted increasing customer choices when it comes to lower admission vehicles. from plug-in hybrids to fuel cells to fully electric drivers -- fully electric, drivers have more choices today. that is some response that axios gathered with her headline -- their headline. they note it lands in the midst

of a presidential campaign in which dvds have become a contested issue with former president donald trump criticizing abiding ev mandate opponents show it restricting choice to vehicles the public does not want to buy. the former president on the electric vehicle policy. [video] >> if you tauto workers, what they have done to their people is horrible. they want to do this all electric nonsense where the cars far and they are all made in china. the head of the united auto workers never probably shook hand with a republican before. mexico has taken over 30 years 34% of the automobile manufacturingwent to mexico. china is building a couple of massive plants where they will build the cars in

they think they will sell those cars into the united states with no tax at the border. china. if you're listening, president xi -- we are friends with the understand the way ideal. those big monster car manager vectoring plants -- manufacturing plants in mexico, you think you will get that and not hire americans and us, not. we will put of 100% -- a 100% tariff on every single car crossed the line. if get elected. if i don't get elected it will be a bloodbath for the -- that will be the least of it. it will be a bloodbath for the country. that will be the least of it. they are not going to sell those cars. host: former president trump in ohio last weekendn the electric vehicle mandate. politico with this question. does china cell electric vehicles in the united states? no chinese electric vehicle manufacturer sells consumer grade cars inside the u.s. under

its own brand name. the closest is polestar, that is majority owned by the chinese company and sells cars in the u.s. made in china. they also own volvo. another chinese company byd surpassed tesla to become the biggest maker of electric vehicles but it does not sell passenger cars in the u.s. it does sell commercial grade electric trucks and buses inside the u.s. political leaders in both the u.s. and europe have expressed fears that cheap chinese electric vehicles could take over the markets. one reason is a big gap in price. in the u.s. the average price of an ev was hovering around $53,000 as of july. some chinese ev's sulfur as low as $11,000. electric vehicle prices in the united states are continuing to remains tens of thousands of dollars. a combination of trump and biden protectionist policies seeks to

deter that from happening. any chinese made vehicle sold in the u.s. would face a sti a 25% tariff imposed by the trump administration that biden has not sought to reverse. let's hear from robert in fairfield, california opposing. caller: hello. i wonder if they have electric car that can go cross-country. an electric car that can go cross-country, los angeles domain -- to maine. when will biden get his cars electric and see what he can do about it? he wants to be the leader of the electric cars. let him do it to his cars then. host: jack in holland ohio. you support. caller: i definitely support because it is time this has to accept the changes.

there was a time when we had horse andy country had to transform into providing fuel stations when automobiles came on the market and became part of the transportation system in this country. it is time for us to advance and renovate and get into electrical vehicles. there will be charging stations around the country just as there are fuel stations. we will be able to accommodate that. host: jack in ohio. we will go to alan in yonkers opposing. tell us why. from what i understand some electric cars are very dangerous in accidents. i heard of incidents where if you are stuck in those cars and you can't get out your time is up because they explode.

i heard there is a lot of lawsuits against some of these companies already because of that. host: alan's concerns in new york. phil is watching in mesa arizona. he supports the new rule phasing out gas powered vehicles. hi phil. caller: yeah. some of the arguments against electric vehicles to me are silly. it's a new technology. it is going to take time for it to get up to speed. there's a lot of battery technology, new technology faster, higher range. it is going to take time. it is not going to happen overnight. the word you want to remember is transition. we are transitioning to electric vehicles. it is not going to happen overnight. the range eventually will increase.

all these problems you are having -- they are talking about safety of electric vehicles. every month i'm seeing car fires from gas-fired cars more than anything. those are morehost: on this transition, the key word you say, this is from axios. it follows a proposal issued and comes as a challenge to auto standards that are already underway. he says emission rules for light duty vehicles including cars, suvs, and light trucks for model years 2027 through 2032. ine waysis than the initial plan. the final rules provide more flexibility, including a slower ratcheting up of emissions limits but gets to the same end goal as the proposal. the rules do not mandate that automakers transition their fleets over to sell more ev's by a certain date, but the tighter

emissions curve manufacturers are likely to favor more ev's to comply with the new rules. the new rule allows manufacturers to include hybrid ev's and plug-in hybrids for meeting the requirement in addition to battery-powered ev's. fa shows during 2030 to 2032 manufacturing years carmakers may choose to produce 30% to 56% of new light-duty vehicle sales as battery electric vehicles with the rest consisting of a mix of other clean vehicle technologies. jess in gaithersburg maryland, supporting the president's actions. do you agree with the washington post that this is biden's biggest climate action? caller: it is certainly going to ma dtransportation happens to be the biggest source of greenhouse gases. my support comes on the fa that when

you're using an electric vehicle you are getting its fuel source from your community or it is more regional. as the transition from fossil fuel energy progresses to your solar and your wind powered sources, your renewables, then these are more local. when i plug in my electric car on a sunny day i'm helping out my neighbors who have their solar panels on the roofs. i'm helping out with the return on investment when i pay my electric bill, because the grid is being supplied by the production of my neighbor's solar panels. and also the wind farms.

there is a self-reliance. that used to be part of america's character. those people who want to rely on fossil fuel vehicles, basically they are limiting themselves to have to pay tribute or held hostage by the board rooms and outside of the country price people who set -- people who set the price like putin who pulled one million barrels of oil per day out of production. the same thing with saudi arabia or opec. they want to be having their household income defined by these outsiders. i question their patriotism and their family identity.

they should be self-reliant. host: axios echoing what you said. transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions with light-duty source within this category. i want to bounce this off of you. this is the washington post. phasing out fossil fuels is a fantasy. oil executives say this amid giant profits. that's the headline. president biden's top officials face an uncomfortable fact. the u.s. is u.s. crude oil production averaged 12.9 million barrels per day in 2023, breaking the previous record day said in 2019. big oil and its investors are reaping the rewards. exxon and chevron, the largest u.s. companies reported their biggest annual profits in a decade last year. exxon reported $36 billion in earnings. netted $21.4 billion.

they rejected global oil demand will reach a new record of $104 -- 104 million barrels per day. your reaction to that? caller: bloomberg is reporting or has reported in that the operators of electric vehicles worldwide has been saving theconsumption of 1.5 million barrels of oil per day. ght? you people driving your fossil fuel cars, the electric vehicles are in effect bringing the price down because by not consuming that resource while opec is cutting production and for

example your so on when they jack the price up you are paying that. these people are of seen profits. -- up seen profits -- obscene profits. p host: teresa, atlantic highlands, new jersey, supporting the president's efforts here. caller: hi. i support the administration's plan with this. from a new york times article yesterday, yeah. what they are saying is that there's a real problem with this. the labor unions, the auto workerse manufacturers say they are not ready to fully implement the moment. the umbra low policy the

administration -- umbrella policy the post include phasing -- transitioning overtime. there are a lot of ways for the manufacturers to be able to, you know hold off immediately going to electric in the short-term, but also to allow for all the other type of vehicles, the hybrids and the electric vehicles to be time that the gas poweredphased in over by the emissions standards that are going to be gradually tightened. i agree. they listened. the administration listened to the manufacturers.

also the auto workers who say they have a steep learning curve to be able to handle these technologies. host: what you in an odd to unions, dpa gives automakers more time -- gives automakers more time on ev's. hi kathy. caller: iona hybrid -- i a hybrid. there are two batteries. one powers the car and when the rest of the vehicle. cannot find a basic battery to replace the one in my car that is dying. if i can't get a basic 12 volt, how are we going to replace the batteries that run the rest of the car? it makes my car basically obsolete. and, the person i was speaking with, an attorney who is representing the companies that l fired power plants in

india, they are building multiple power plants with admissions from coal burning facilities.the other thing i want to mention is, hhese ev's. they put them back on the market to get rid of them because there is no infrastructure that will accommodate any length of driving. they have dispensed with their ev program. i -- this is a personal situation. i am being held hostage by this administration. i think we are being sold out. it should be phased in over of time, but why should we be held hostage and have the inconvenience because this administration for whatever reason wants to put the united states drivers in an

inconvenient situation where we have no power? literally and figuratively. i'm definitely opposed to it. host: kathy in delaware. more calls coming up on this support or oppose the administration's actions on trying to phase out gas powered vehicles? they announced the new rule yesterday. we will get back to that discussion in a minute. we want to show you the speaker from capitol hill yesterday. mike johnson talking to reporters about the way forward on the minibus spending agreement that would fund six federal agencies and avoiding partial government shutdown. they need to vote by midnight friday. [video] >> we have been very consistent and adamant we had to get our government appropriations process done. we are coming to the end of that and we should have that hopefully by this afternoon and

begin to finish up the process. this is the second batc bill, fsgg homeland. the lastpiece was the most difficult to negotiate. the two parties have a wide chasm between them. i think the final product is something we were able toachieve a lot of key provisions in and wins,ority. there was some tough negotiation. the attention will turn to the supplemental issues. there are a number of avenues we have been looking at to address that. i'm not going to say today what that is. that work has been done deliberately along the way but we had to get the approaps done first. we wilde speaker johnson on the government funding bill. coming up on washington journal we lawmakers about this debate on capitol hill.

we will be joined by representative al green democrat can ralph norman, republican. back to our discussion about efforts to phase out gas powered vehicles. larry in houston texas. you support thcaller: i definitely do. they have been making money and making money. do you want to keep spending three dollars a gallon on gas because opec decides they don't want to drill or russia is at it is time to go ahead. i was in the military in the 1990's. i was in germany andthey have the high-speed trains and stuff. america is so far behind with infrastructure, even for stuff like that. high-speed bullet trains. i live in houston. host: understood. richard in new york, opposing. caller: good morning, greta. how are you today

i do oppose it. i think the primary reason is the infrastructure is not in e. morning. i like the fact this revised plan does allow for an increase in these oi think with hybridization, it should have been leading the way on this. i live in a rural area in upstate new york. there is no way that the current infrastructure would support allowing us to be able to use our vehicles and travel distances we might like to do. for folks who talk about the price of oil and everything, they're knowi oil is fungible. it's a world market. it is not a texas market or ohio rket. that is what is driving the price of oil in these situations. restrict the use of oil they should be promoting hybridization far more than they

are doing right now. needs to be brought up is the fact the u.s. auto industry made the wrong guess.. the industry went heavy on electric electric vehicles. companies like toyota went on hybridization. toyota was right. that will be the transitional process here. host: sorry. i have to leave it there. we will go to open form a couple of times on washington journal this morning. for those of you that called in and are waiting on short break. when we come back democrat al green joins us about the fast approaching government funding deadline and his concerns about the israel-hamas war and the humanitarian crisis in gaza. later, yesterday's comments from the federal reserve chair jerome powell about the future of interest rate cuts with christopher rugaber, economics reporter for the associated press. we will be right back. ♪

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podcast on c-span now, our free mobile app, or wherever you get your podcasts. c-span. your unfiltered view of politics. >> washington journal continues. host: back at the table this morning with congressman al green, democrat of texas. let's start with the israel-hamas war. he wrote a letter published in the houston chronicle to the president. what are you asking of him? guest: first may i thank you for having meyou for your 45 years. host: thank you. guest: this letter goes to the president because i wanted to remind him of something i'mthat is on the 14th of may 1948 israel declared itself a state. president truman, president at that time, was the first major world power country to recognize israel as such. thatas created an imbalance. i am hoping that we will

understand that at that time the palestinians d not consent to israel becoming a state. they were vehemently opposed. i don't think now we need to have isrstine become a state. i think palestine declared itself a state. if we recognize it that would help us move this process along. unfortunately we have since that date in 1948 to now had israeli state but not a palestinian state. israel can lobby for itself at the united nations. palestine is an observer. it is not the same as being a member state. i would hope we would support israel and also support the should be a member state of the united nations. i think we should do this because a period of time with it is not a governor -- government in gaza. it's a great time for us to start the process of doing these

things. palestinians seem to be moving now from this notion there is some means of acquiring statehood other i think they want to move in this direction. we have seen polls indicating this and i think it will be good for them. i think it will be good for us because country that for too long has blocked the opportunity for palestine to become a state. literally in the united nations we prevented it. president biden has indicated his desire to see it happen. i'm very much forward. have this humanitarian crisis addressed in palestine. there should be mercy and justice. palestinians, all their facilities infrastructure, these things have been destroyed we need to make sure we are not the culprits. we don't want to support anymore destruction of palestine. war to an end and to make sure we don't kill any more babies. too many babies have died in this war. host: orian crisis

in gaza, world agencies are warning of a famine in the area. this headline from the new york times. congress plans to cut u.n. aid feeding a hungry gaza. guest: i'm disappointed to see the headline. more to help. host: where's is coming from? guest: read the headline you are reading. if it has to do with the billing going to be voting on possibly as early as sometime this week, perhaps host: part of a massive spending bill negotiated by lawmakers in the white house -- and the white ed to clear. congress by this weekend guest: i look forward to learning more about it. it does not encourage me to support it. re is what happens. these bills are crafted such that there will be many things in it that you have to support in your opinion ve to make a hard choice.

i'm prepared to make the hard choice. if i have to vote against supported so i can support feeding hungry people, i will probably in gaza, we have found we cannot get food into people who are suffering, who need food. the president has talked about building a pier to bring food and by way of water. this is something you would not expect our allies to put us in a position of having to do. there is something terribly wrong with this relationship. it appears as though we are a proxy of israel and we are not of proxy. we are allies. we should be treated as such and respected as such. the prime minister of israel should give us more deference and support in my opinion. host: more from this new york times canada, sweden, iceland, australia, which suspended funding for the relief group aftersrael's accusations were

made in public in january that some members of this human group were part of the attack on october 7. -- u.m.n. group. guest: they alleged 14 members are members of somehow hamas in some way. 14 is too get into the palestinians. i would support doing what wecan to weed out the persons who have created a problem for us. i don't know that we have to eliminate the entity itself that we have problems and police department across our country but we don't eliminate police department step we weed got the person to create the problem and continue to work with the police. my belief is we can weed out persons who are bad actors but we have to get the food in to the palestinians. host: cease fire still elusive as israel gives negative response.

this is from the prime minister in a national address to israelis. as we are preparing to enter raaf, and this will take a little time, wethey have not responded to the biden administration's plea to not go into rafa ared children you are talking about, the palestinians, are gathered. guest: yes. the operative phrase was full force. full force. this full force means we will bonds and kill more babies or innocent people? case i don't support going in with full force. i think israel has the right to go after the people who performed these dastardly deeds on october 7. you cannot allow that to metamorphoses into an offensive effort that in the opinion of many, if you look at the devastation, is an effort to destroy the housing in gaza, make it difficult for the residents to returnit is said there

are going to be literally thousands of people who will not have a home to return to, infstructure to return to, hospitals to return to, schools to return to. it seems we ought to and that behavior. mr. netanyahu has not been responsive to president biden and it is time for us to take additional steps. at some point ill see members of congress -- i don't speak for anybody other than myself -- i think you will see members of congress making the tough choice of whether they are going totary aid to israel. it has to get to this point because we cannot abide with the killing of babies. i marvel at people how can be so upset, and they should be, over what happened on october 7 when israeli babies were killed. they condemned this, but they condone the killing of palestinian babies. how can you be recalcitrant about what happened in israel on october 7 and then condone the

killing of innocent palestinian babies and men and women? at some point we have to take a stand against the military that is doing this because it does not bode well for israel, does not bode well for the united states. senator schumerwe have to take a stand. we cannot appear to be a proxy for israel. host: max in mechanicsville maryland. republican. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. let's be realistic when we talk about what's happening. hamas, the leader of the palestinian state they went into israel and they committed those dastardly acts and then returned to their kitchens where they fired rockets into israel. most of what is happening in palestine is the result of their terrorist actions. palma's is responsible for what is happening to the palestinian people.

if the state of palestine surrendered the hamas militants this would end. this is if you believe this took place on the seventh. if you believe the things we heard on the news and saw on tv actually happened, that is the truth. there already is a state of palestine. there is an army of palestine. there is a government of the state of palestine. it is led by the political faction of hamas. it is defended by the military wing of hamas. host: let's get a response to that. guest: i'm pleased you called. let me express my regret for what happened on october i have seen evidence that i believe to be credible indicating that many people were killed and there were place. i don't condone any of that. i condemn hamas for what they have done. hamas should not have done this. israel has a right to go after hamas. mr. netanyahu, the prime

minister disagrees with you it seems. ontends the war is against hamas, not the palestinians. i think too often people confuse hamas with the palestinians. mr. netanyahu himself has indicated that hamas should be punished but he said the ns are victims. we don't want hamas to victimize the palestinians and then have the israeli forces victimize them as well. i sure don't want thoseat we helped israel to acquire -- our fingerprints are all over i don't them killing another baby in palestine. it is time to bring the war to an end because it should not be against the palestinian people. it isian people. the prime minister himself and many others associated with the government have indicated such. host: robert in ohio, independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. i was just wondering, mr. green it seems like you always want to

talk about palestine and everything but you never want to talk about black america. nothing about haiti and what they are going through. i was wondering why is that? i appreciate you giving me the opportunity to respond. perception can be reality for many people. i have next week ads published in four papers in houston that deal with that question of haiti and how haiti finds itself in the position is in. how haiti liberated itself and after liberating itself france decided to blackmail haiti into paying what would be the equivalent of about $20 billion today so that haiti could maintain its freedom. they had a flotilla of boats that were going back to reinflate the haitians at a dexter catered themselves from

slavery. --slavery. i am the progenitor of slavery remembers day, august 20. august 20, 1619, the first africans introduced into slavery into the colonies. i have called her a congressional gold medal for the enslaved persons who are the foundation of mothers and fathers of this country. the people who made america great by picking the cotton, by planting the seeds, harvesting the crops, building the white house we so on where our president resides by bu well in congress will remake our great speeches -- some of them not so great. i have made some that are not so great myself. i have done these things. unfortunately they don't get published as much. i wish you would ask more questions and get more answers to people so you can help spread the word that al green is born blacklack people. he also fights for

underprivileged people wherever they may be. you cannot decide you only fight for yourself and one group of people if you are a member of the u.s. congress, because you are a united states congressman. got a congressperson for just some segment of society. i believe our efforts impact the world. where there is trouble for some. host: diane in kansas, republican. caller: good morning,-- green. i believe almost all democrats and republicans in the country don't want innocent peopledying, women and children. i have a question for you. right next door to gaza is egypt. i saw on c-span last week they are the biggest recipient of aid from the united states. $150 billion. yet they refuse to take in refugees. at one point they would not

allow us to get aiin. money talks. why aren't we putting pressure on egypt in the form of cutting them off of funds unless they take refugees out of the line of fire? that is number one. number two, we all know iran is behind this whole thing as far as applying weapons -- supplying weapons and attacks against israel. our own ships -- it's all done with the run money. i never hear about any pressure on iran to stop this. guest: thank you for the question. egypt has seen this movie before. unfortunately palestinians would be permitted to return to their homes in the past and they haven't. palestinians themselves are reluctant to leave and go into egypt or any other c understand there

is likely to be no right to return. there's a bi dispute about a right to return for the palestinians who left back in the 1940's and times thereafter and the descendants are still locked out. there are more palestinians in jordan then in palestine. that is because palestinians were forced out and they had to leave. palestinians are very reluctant to leave even though they have very little to stay at home with. the final point on this. last -- pardon me for plugging another network -- cnn had a program on where the israel who were planning to take the land in gaza once the war is and they will take the property and try to move back in the gaza. i don't abide with this. allow the homes that have been destroyed allegedly to get to the dastards that permitthe october 7 crimes, we should

not allow those destructions to be a means by which israelis can come in and take over gaza. they would be no lanford a two state solution at some point. you are losing land on the west bank because of settlers. gaza because -- land in gaza because of the bombs u.s. allowed the israelis to acquire. they will lose that land to the settlers who will come back and take it. at some point there has e there has to be another state. there has to be a state of palestine, not of observers. they cannot be under the con israel for their electricity and so much of what they need has to come by and through israel. palestine deserves estate. 1948 when the agreement was made. they were to have two states not one state that would palestine. in 1948, it was in a land in a place called palestine. host: representative al green, a

headline. netanyahu berates schumer reacting to the remarks by the leader criticizing and calling for mr. netanyahu to leave. that's the new york times. netanyahu addressing republican senators only in a virtual appearance yesterday after he was not allowed to address democratic then you have the former senator joe lieberman writing in today's opinion section of the wall street journal. schumer has crossed a red line over israel. his speech last week is evidence that his party is catering to those who are hostile to the jewish state. do you believe that? guest: let's start with al green . i have voted for 50 $50 billion the jewish state. on the floor the house of representatives. i have defended the holocaust. i attendolocaust events. i support israel.

you can support israel and you can support palestine. i think that is what esther schumer did. i think -- i think that is what mr. schumer did. i stand with him on what he's done. i'm proud to say i believe that if we take him seriously we will act seriously. but we will do is move towards a two state solution. this does not surprise me that mr. netanyahu made these comments. it doesn't surprise me because this is the same mr. netanyahu who came to washington d.c., went to the house of representatives, spoke on the floor and disrespected president the floor of the house of representatives. it does not surprise me he would make the statements. this is the same mr. netanyahu the prime minister of israel, who knew what was going on with hamas in gaza. who wanted hamas and contr gaza. he condoned it. as long as some moss was in control of gaza he could always say i would like to have its

for two state solution but hamas wants to destroy israel. i don't have a partner to negotiate with. hamas became a foil for mr. ahu so he could that he did not want a two state solution. before october 7 when suitcases of money were going into gaza that he was aware of, going to hamas. mr. netanyahu is a in my opinion has not acted in good faith when it comes to a two state solution. it is time to get beyondmr. schumer, the majority leader schumer has made a good choice in deciding he would not take a stance -- he would take a stance for justice. for justice for the palestinians and peace between israel and palestine. host: arthur, democratic caller. caller: hi representative green. i'm from the old school.

a fellow by the name of jack brooks. brooks. he would be ashamed of what is going on in texas right now. my interest is mass transit. are we going to have any type of design to handle mass transit for the larger cities and the extremes that you know of? host: we will take that question. guest: i don't want to get to diverted from the important issues we are dealing with right now but in texas, as you may be aware we have been for some years trying to perfect a mass transit system, a high-speed rail system that would take us texas. i came up with a t-bone system a y system. we have not been able to find the system. funding is holding up a lot of the mass transit systems. we should have high-speed rails from the east coast to the west

coast and that breaks off to parts in between. unfortunately it's a question of funding. thank you for your l. guest: rob from springfield, virginia. republican. caller: i'm actually independent. representative thank you for speaking the truth about the situation. this notion that palestine 12 only be -- will only be created when it's lawyer the u.s. agrees to it. it has to be the u.n. like the creation of israel. another thing i want to point out is this answers a question about why the german people allowed the nazi government to do what it did in world war ii. we see that now with this genocide. it is propaganda and brainwashing. do you think -- who are the , the officials or the people who vote for them?

the people funding all this work and stuff. that is my question for you. guest: i disassociate myself with the language. i do think people who vote our monsters. people have opinions. i think we have to discuss ani am a firm believer that we can compromise. i don't believe that compromise can capitulation. i think we can compromise. i am hopeful we will see that where mr. schumer is is the ri be and we should have a two state solution. on the question of a two state solution, the question has not been asked. why would israel allow the state to exist adjacent to it that it is having all these problems with? here is the answer i can give you to this. israel engaged in a war with jordanypt. israel still lives in the

neighborhood with jordan, syria, and egypt. israel can have another neighbor in that neighborhood, a state called palestine. you should not assume the palestinians are going toh be more powerful than jordan, israel and egypt. they are not. they are not that powerful now. israel is a mini superpower. israel has the bomb. they will tonight in some quarters. when it becomesmuscles someone will say we have the bomb. host: here is rita epstein's reporting. democratic voters warned biden over the gaza conflict in the reelection bid. here's a quote. "president biden has provided what appears to be unconditional support for the israeli operations. divide administration has been providing armaments, including 2000 pound bombs which have been used to flatten entire civilian neighborhoods, causing massive casualties with a high ratio of women and children. president biden asked netanyahu

to minimize civilian casualties but has threatened no consequences as netanyahu continues to ignore him." should the threat guest: we at some point have to netanyahu. let him know we appreciate his advice but we are the united states of america. tfwe stand for liberty and justice for all. we believe all persons are created equal and endowed with certain un-inalienable rights. this is how we market ourselves. we are not going tobombs. we may help you with your defense. i don't what to rockets. to see israel vulnerable to rockets. we should take note with hezbollah shooting rockets. we went to offense to the extent of

blowing ambulances and killing children, we are not going to abide with this. the president will do it. i believe in this president. this president tries his best to work with people. he really does. he gives you every opportunity. at some point he has given his best efforts to work and he takes a position. i'm hoping we are getting to i hope you will let mr. netanyahu know we democratic caller, talking with congressman al green. caller: good morning, mr. green. how are better than i deserve. caller: congratulations to c-span washington journal anniversary i'd like to thank susan swan and brian lamb and all of them who contributed to c-span all these years. comment and i have a question for mr. green.

my comment is dealing with israel. all the presidents all the way back from 1948 all the way up until barack obama supported a two state but when donald trump came into office, he put jerusalem the u.n. right in the middle of jerusalem. he had the people who were coming to see what jesus says where born and where he was crucified. those lands where the palestinians from yasser arafat all the way up to now. the prime minister is in trouble now come him abribis and contributing to this war probably will never bring him up for charges as the war continues. host: we will have the congressman respond. guest: there is a point that's beenlong talked about a two state

solution but we have not acted on it. the truth isean it. that was just a means by which they could allow the process to move forward to where we are today where there seems to be now a desire for one state solution which i cannot support. i think we have to have two states and i regret we haven't moved to this point sooner. no time better than this time. the best time to plant ape tree for shade is 25 years ago. since we didn't do it then now so posterity will not condemn us for what we do today that we didn't do today that we didn't to 25 years ago. host: thank you for the conversation this morning. guest: i thank you very much. i pray for peace. i'm a peacemaker. i think it's time fornation in the world to do what we should have done many years ago and that is with the notion that the palestinians not only deserve a state but that we will support this in the united nations. we have been an obstacle to having

a state in its time for us to move in that direction i think president biden is the person to do it. i don't want anybody to question where my loyalties are. i believe in president biden and i will be citing with president biden. when the time comes. host: thank you, congressman. we will take a short break and when we come back, we will be in open forum. at about 30 minutes, we will be joined by the economics reporter for the associated press. we will talk about the federal reserve, interest rate predictions andfirst, open farm, any public policy or political issue on your mind, start dialing in. we will be right back. ♪

>> sunday on q&a c losada talks about the insights he blamed for reading the memoirs political biographies and official reports written by politicians and government officials in washington, d.c. >> when the latest special counseleport, the hur report looking into biden's handling of classified documents that report said something about how he would come across to a jury is a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory. one big thing in that bookin that report was how he had supposedly not remembered the precise year his son bo died. in the acknowledgments, ther the first paragraph of the acknowledgments section in joe

biden's book says this was a very hard year or a hard time for me to look back on. as such, some of my memories of this are [indiscernible] >> sunday night at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a which you can listen to and are free span -- and are free c-span now app. shop >> c-spanshop.org is our online store. browse through our latest collection of c-span products. there is something for every c-span fan and every purchas shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. directory >> "washington journal" continues..

host: we are in open form until the top of the hour. you can continue the conversation we were just having with congressman al green as . part of that conversation is included in this spending agreement, the so-called minibus that has come up in of vote is expected later in the week to avoid a government shutdown. i speaker mike johnson yesterday talking to reporters about the way forward. [video clip] >> we've been very consistent and very adamant that we had to get our government funded and get the appropriations process done. we are coming to the end of that as it have text hopefully by this afternoon. webegin to finish up that process. this is the second batch of bills and includes the department of defense bill, labor ,fsgg and homeland. the homeland piece was the most difficult to negotiate because the two parties of a white chasm between them. product is something we were able to achieve a lot of key provisions

in and move in the direction we want even with their historically small majority. there was some technique negotiate and but that having come to an end, to the supplemental issues and there is a number of avenues we been looking at to address that. i'm today what that is but i want you to know that work has been done deliberately along the way but we had to get the appropriations done first. having done that now, we will turn our attention to it and we won't delay on it. host: speaker mike johnson yesterday talking about about coming up here in the house to avoid a government shutdown. that has to go over to the senate for its approval.

we can talk about that this morning and open forum the 1.2 trillion dollars spending agreement as well. michael in gainesville florida independent. caller:ou for this opportunity. it's about speaking truth to power. i know both of these gentlemen know enough history to know that they have not been speaking the whole i know this is right up their alley. this is about native people's rights.

the palestinia did not have a government. they were just tribes in palestine. you can look in the old national geographic magazines and see that. anyone to move in. at the end of world war ii, this is about white racism and religion, this is about religion. we were racist and are racist. at the end wanted, none of the countries in europe wanted to deal with all of the migration islethey literally sent people under the u.n. charter that they described as terroec some of the leaders set up the initial state were in fact terrorists. they put bombs in open areas. what i'm trying to get at here is we need to speak the truth. if you're going to negotiate and discuss debate and compromise you begin with truth. i'm not saying we need to get

rid of israel but if you are going to createsolution, there needs to be understanding by both parties that that is a gift to israel, not palestine. it's not capitulation by any means. we had economic and oil needs and desires in that area but that's a distant third compared to the number one thing which was a bunch of christians in our country that wanted that to happen over there. the second thing was simply a place to put all of those migrants. it was a serious issue. host: other people are waiting renee in west chester pennsylvania, democratic caller. caller: two things i will say first, i wanted to speak to representative green but anyway, i feel baded to the israeli people in october and also for the innocent people of palestine.

i feel that netanyahu should be trying to do something, some kind of peace and get the rest of the israel hostages back. he should try to work out something. i hope he because this is not the people of israel but i hope he is not trying to use this to get more land out of palestine and set upew settlement and still more -- and still more land from palestine. i hope that's not what he's up to. also i'm sick of seeing hunter biden. he never had a political office. he never ran for political office. gesticontinue dragging him and wasting all the money and time, dragging him down it's just sick host: you didn't see him yesterday on capitol hill. he was invited to testify before the house oversight committee. that's the panel that has launched that inquiry into an

impeachment of president joe biden and the biden family business dealings. fy. others did. we covered that hearing. was over six hours on capitol hill. if you want to find it on our website, c-span.org. you that to c-span.org and go to the video player and pushed play and you will see gold stars that appear and you go through the hearing. some of those moments, we will show you a couple of them this morning. this is from former hunter biden business associate tony boboli nski. [video clip] >> should i allow hunter to give his opening statement first? >> it doesn't appear mr. by initiatives for his public hearing so we will recognize you. chairman, ranking members and members of congress, good morning. thank you for this opportunity to speak with you and present my triple testimony to

i said here today under oath for one reason only, the american people deserve to hear the truth. the truth involves the deep corruption of the biden family including the malfeasance of the sitting president of the united states might be raw and unpleasant. th people must hear it. you are presented here today with two narratives in this investigation. a false when being pushed by joe biden, serial liar under this impeachment investigation for public corruption, his brother jim biden, 75 euros man who cannot biz lysed straight oath and his son hunter biden a chronic drug addict facing two indictments with 12 counts. you also have before you the truth multiple biden family business partners over many years and backed up by mountains of irrefutable evidence including text messages documents recordings. i am the only biden family business partner with an impeccable military record. i'm grateful this country has given me the freedsful. work hard to become independently wealthy. i have taken several businesses

public, sold multiple businesses to some of the world's best private equity firms. my business success is why they sought me out. however, what they have done is repugnant to me. patriot and i'm a truth teller. host: that was from the opening statement of tony bobolinkski, a former hunter biden business associate. here is democratic member of the oversight committee and challenging him on his testimony. [video clip] >> statement submitted to the record, part of our proceedings. i have a quick question. it's simple. is it your testimony today that you personally witnessed president joe biden commit a crime? >> i believe the fact that he was sitting with me while i was putting together >> you witness the president

commit a crime checkup is it your testimony today? >> yes. >>me to have to do just to go through it? >> get simple, you name the crime. >> >> rico>> statutes, what is the crime? specifically. >> you asked me question and answer the question. rico you are not familiar with. >> excuse me, sir. rico is not a crime. >> gets the category of crime and they are charged >> you have charges, sir, please name >> the statute of rico in this committee room, everyone is not here. i reclaim my time. thank you, sir, i reclaim my time. clearly what we are seeing here today is a continuation of the 15 month saga of the republican

majority lost in the desert. impeachment 101. the majority party or whomever isng impeachment must accuse the president of a high crime, a specific high crime or misdemeanor. i would like to submit to the record hres 918 the house resolution to open this impeachment inquiry. >> without objection to order. >> this resolution does not outline a high crime or misdemeanor. it's not here. host: from capitol hill yesterday, the hearing before the house oversight committee. if you missed it, go to our website and you can watch it there. if you hit play, you will get points of interest on the video. they line up on your right hand side of your screen. you can quickly go through the hearing that went over six hours. go to c-span.org. thomas in delray beach florida

republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for having me. i just want to say i'm so disappointed that we are going to have a donald trump and joe biden rematch. to me it's just a better. on tuesday, i voted my local elections and i had an opportunity to vote for the republican primary. at this point, it's moot and irrelevant because we know the candidates have dropped out. i still allowed myself the delusion of hope that somehow by the time of the republican and democrat national conventions, either joe biden or donald trump or both may be replaced by a different candidate. i know a lot of republicans do not want to see trump again and i know a lot of democrats that don't want to see biden again. i guessement and questions all in one. why are we not demanding a

better third option because there has to be one out there?host: speaking of the florida primary, this is from msn.com. you heard from that florida voter who said he left it blank. there is also this in the wall street journal this morning on all of our campaign 2024 coverage, go to c-span.org/

campaign. norman in new jersey, democaller. caller: good morning. please bear with me. i'm 97 years old from a world war ii vet and i may speak a little slowly. myit's not exactly book burning but we get rid of books in this country. might as well burn tli did with the nazis. the only thing i want to say is if we are going to be concerned with sex in books, we have to get rid of the bible. in the bible they talk about the adultery. if the young child reads that book and asks what adultery is, how are you going to explain it?

or coveting? host: we will go to william in lakeland, florida, republican. caller:ello, how are you today? host: good morning. caller: good morning, i just want to say that i don't care if you are republican or democrat, we need to look things up and do some research and find out from the beginning, god gave so much land to israel, god gave so much land too if you want to call them the palestinians. we know the truth. this is the truth, this is history. it was strip. it was never palestinian until about maybe the end of 206 when george bush gave the land to the

palestinians. why did he give the land? why did the palestinians want the land? so they can shoot at israel. now we know this for sure that when israel bombed theospital it was a place where hamas people was hiding out in the hospital. my number is don't give us your phone number. we are an open forum here this morning. any public policy or political issue on your mind. karl rove writes of peace in today's wall street journal that 2024 comes down to only seven states. america is home to 336 million people across 50 states and the district of columbia.

that's karl rove's breakdown inwall street journal. when he was working in the george bush campaign, there were 21 battleground states at that time during that cycle and now we are down to seven battleground states. george in michigan, independent. caller: good morning. i'll try to get through this as fast as i can i know we have a tei am a uaw retiree. biden is trying to push these electric cars is much as he can. be a lot of uaw brothers and sisters that will vote for that man. they are not goingo vote to stop the gas powered cars. that man's crazy if he thinks he will keep the union behind him. second of all aoc doesn't know

what she's talking about, rico is a crime. that's what trump is being charged with in georgia. if it's not a crime, then president trump should not be on trial for anything. the first thing i would like to mention is the southern border. how many people in this country go to bed or get up in morning, open up their front and back door and just leave them standing open all day, every day. anybody that can walk into their house, walk in uninvited and have no idea who they are. that's what's happening to our country. all thes people that are illegals coming into this country, they are not invited. you don't ever your open your front door to somebody you don't know. host: the funding bill is part of this minibus package that has been agreed to in the house. they are slated to vote on it this week before they leave for a two-week recess.

the house will vote and the senate. e hedl here is the house freedom caucus yesterday saying he is not only against the bill but he's against the effort to circumvent the 72 hour rule. [video clip] >> if you're planning to vote for the bill you ought to be more concerned about the 72 hours because i don't plan to vote for the bill and i will not vote for the increased spending or i anticipate to be schumer and jeffries priorities but if you are you ought to be insisting on at least 72 hours to read it because if you vote for this bill, you own every bad policy in there. it would be concerned that some members might say i will vote for it. i think it will be 2000 pages. you own everything that's in it but if you are voting against

it, maybe you don't need 72 hours but should certainly need as much time as possible to affirm you will vote for this bill. host: that was congressman bob good, chair of the freedom caucus yesterday. paul in indianapolis, independent, what's on your mind this morning? caller: i just wanted to respond to i think it was michael from california about the history of back earlier than 1948 to understand. the 1920's through the end of the second world war, the palestinians were demanding that the settlhad purchased. during world war ii, the palestinian people as well as nd iran supported the third reich. the leader of the palestinians, was also an ss major general. the palestinian, the plo troops that participated in the 1940 were were trained by hitler's

favorite general. expect, i'm not trying to excuse, i'm trying to explain. the fact is, the jews cannot trust the palestinian organization because of its behavior during world war ii. the palestinians supported the nazis and the jews provided an infantry brigade to fight for the allies in italy. host: falls thoughts there in indiana. we will take a short break and we come back, the economics reporter for the associated press joins us. we will talk about the federal reserve interest rate productions and outlook for the u.s. economy and later congressman ralph norman from south carolina, house freedom caucus member will he be here to talk about his upcoming no vote on the latest government funding bill. ♪

>> just two weeks ago in midst of the terrible tragedy on the potomac, we saw again the spirit of american heroism at its finest. the heroism of dedicated rescuers saving crash victims frcy waters and we saw the heroism of one of our young government employees who when he saw a woman lose her grip on the helicopter line, dived into the water and dragged her to safety. [applause] >> c-span, powered by cable.

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>> "washington journal" continues. host: we h economics and federal reserve reporter for the associated press. you are here to talk about the federal reserve action yesterday for their news conference. guest: right. they foresee three interest rate cuts this year. what did the board decide? guest: they decided, they didn't decide to do a lot yesterday but the news was that if you said they decided to keep the three rate cut forecast for this and that was a little up in the air because there been a couple of inflation reports that s faster than they would like to see and probably most americans would like to see. the concern was whether they would continue to pencil in cuts. they are looking at cutting

rates as inflation does come down and it's come down a lot the peak of summer, 2022. there is a little worry on wall street they might pull back some of the forecasted rate cuts but jerome powell made clear that while they are a little worried about some of this inflation in the past couple of months, they think the story is still the same, as he put it that they will be of to cut rates later this year. host: why are they a little bit concerned and not overly concerned? where do they see inflation take up? guest: you saw it take up in january and february with rental pricests some of it was in other services such as the car insurance is still a big thing. you have more expensived car prices went up a lot during this inflationary episodes of the cost to ensure them is rising. i think they felt, chair powell suggested some of this was a temporary uptick or seasonal adjustment with the numbers. in the coming months he says we

should see inflation come back down a bit in terms of the growth of consumer prices coming down to the lower levels we saw in the second half of last year which is what gave them the optimism they might be able to cut this year. host: what was the reaction from wall street? guest: it was very positive. you saw the indexes close at record highs. there was thisn the course of lowering interest rates in general that can help stock prices. it can help company profits to some degree. yes, share prices went up a lot yesterday as soon as that press conference, during the press conference and aft what happens when the federal reserve starts look -- making cuts to the interest rates? guest: typically end over time, it should help consumers. you should see lower mortgage rates, lower rates on auto loans maybe even credit record highs and those should come down so that's a benefit to consumers.

business loans also should be a little easier to get in a little cheaper. it could give a little bit of a boost to the economy. it should keep -- the economy is growing now with low unemployment so hopefully if they are able to implement those rate cuts, that would keep the economy growing the way it is now. host: as jeromel owsel and the fede this plane and avoided a recession? guest: so far, yes. that seems to be what is happening and that's good news. it's not what was expected if you go back to 2020 toion was still very high and there was an expectation that the fed would have to raise rates and they would cause a st rates would cause people to pull back on spending so much that we would have a downturn. instead, even as they continue to spend. there were some pullbacks in areas like housing, home sales fell, car sales did so so.

overall, the economy continued to grow and companies continued to hire. there is hope that the so-called soft landing where we would get inflation back down to the 2% target without a recession, so far we are on track for that. chair powell want the clear victory yet but so far, we are on track for that. host: we want to invite our viewers to join us in this conversation where you see the economy where you live. democrats dial in at (202) 748-8000 republicans (202) 748-8001, an independents (202) 748-8002 and you can also text us at (202) 748-8003. facebook or you can also join us on x, just post @ c-span. what about food prices? is there anything the federal rese prices in the uptick that consumers have seen since the pandemic?

guest: not than they been able to do so far. grocery prices are as much a 25 percent higher than they were before the pandemic. creases have come down the past year, they are only up around 1% but that's still a lot higher than three or four yeawhat we have seen is consumers pushing back a bit. some of the big food companies have talked about that they raise prices a fa amount in the past couple years and they've seen some of their sales drop off with people going more to private label or discount stf,ñj. some of the bigger companies like kraft, heinz, proctoring gamble have talked prices. there may still be a little bit of a hike but there ie is that people will continue to get pay raises on average in the past year or so, americans on average have gotten some wage increases that outpace the price hikes.

i think a lot of people will still need to see if you more 'p. bringing prices back down usually only happens in a bad recession and we don't really want that. host: they are not talking about lowering prices but not raising them because we are not in a recession. guest: that's right and even though wage increases are slowing as well which reduces some of the inflationary pressure, wages on average are still rising a bit faster than they were before the if that continues, the goal is for people to feel they can afford a lot of this stuff back to something close to where was before. host: we will get to your calls in a minute but i want to show you what the federal reserve chair jerome powell had to say when he spoke to reporters yesterday after the board met. [video clip] >> the committee decided in today's meeting to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 5.25 percent-5.5 percent and continue the process

of significant reit -- significantly reducing her scurries holding. as tightness as eased in progress on inflation has continued, the risk to achieving our inflation goals are coming into better balance. we believe our policy rate is likely at its peak for this tightening cycle. if the econoad likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint at some point this year. uncertain however and we remain highly attentive to inflation risks. we are prepared to maintain the current target range for the federal funds rate for lonif appropriate. we know that reducing policy restraint too soon or too muchcamry -- can result in a reverse on the progress on inflation and ultimately require even tighter policy to get inflation back to 2%. reducing policy restraint too late or too little good unduly weaken economic activity and employment in considering any adjustments

to the target range for the federal funds rate. we will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks. ittee does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation sustainably down toward 2%. host: that was the federal reserve chair yesterday. we have economics and federal reserve reporter with the associated press. he will take your questions and comments on the economy so we will go to ron in tacoma park maryland, independent. caller: good morning, c-span and congratulations on your 45th anniversary. host: thank you. caller: i'm calling thisabout hr 2513 which is the corporate transparency act wch impacts some 35 or 40 nonemployed businesses and 70.4 million freelancers, 9.6 million of them are self-employed.

with 97% of these small businesses they are required to file this report, it went into effect january 1 of 2024. if you were incorporated before that date, you have until january, 202if you incorporate new business after january 1, you only have 90 days to start at $500 per day up $10,000 and it's two years of federal jail time. people to positive changepc .com. i want to know if you can get someone from the national small business association who filed a federal lawsuit 2024 and struck down this and declared it unconstitutional and there has been some coverage but very little coverage. if you cthe national small business association to speak to this because the ruling is that it

only covers32 million small businesses and people who have airbnb's. host: do you have any thoughts on that? guest: there has been a big people filing for new companies including ones that hire people. that's been positive trend in the economy since the pandemic sometimes out of necessity people have struck out on their own. that's kept a lot of people employed and potentially could bring a lot of innovation into the economy so hopefully that will continue, t john in pennsylvania, republican, your next. caller: thank you for taking my call. coming under control but from a government spending standpoint, my local township taxes went up 16.7%. my medicare part b went up 6%.

even if inflation is coming down, the government spending, don't know if that's part of the basket how they determine inflation. it would be interesting to hear your comments regarding that. host: that's an interesting point. government spending. guest: it's not really part of the inflation basket. it doesn't affect the numbers but some economist worry that more government spending does create and can help boost demand in the economyt can potentially keep inflation higher. other people point out -- this and we are still sorting out has mostly been seen as a supply driven situation where we had the supply chain snarls in the pandemic with shortages of ou couldn't get things on store shelves and that is what drove most of the inflation we have seen. is that has been sorted out, that's how inflation has come down without even the significant -- without any loss of jobs or the recession that

many people were worried about. government s something a lot of people watch to see it that keeps the economy may be growing faster than it can and potentially contribute into inflation. host: rayshard in maryland, democratic caller, good morning. caller: good morning. see you on tv, my brother. chris and i have been going to the same church for many years. he is a great guy and glad to see him. great to see you this morning. my question is about the impact of housing prices on inflation. here in the d.c. metro housing prices are through the roof and they will continue to go through the roof as time goes on but we are not the only metro area in the country facing this. there are metro areas throughout the country where is actually decreasing like charlotte and

austin, texas. they are building warehousing as well which is something a lot of people are resistant to. there is a big thing now about essentially growing units. could you comment on the impact of housing costs on the drivers of inflation? i will have to pick your brain more during coffee hour. guest: thank you and good to hear from you. is the overall category including home prices, cost of buying a rent and that has continued to be a big driver of inflation. if you factor that out of the data come inflation would be back below the federal reserve 2% target. housing is definitely a big

and rents have been coming down. the growth rate of rent has been coming down although in some cities as you noted, the actual rents themselves have declined. as you noted, because people are building more apartments and building more housing nationwide, we are seeing almost a record number of new apartments coming online. during the pandemic of a people wanted to move out and have more space so there was more demand which is what initially drove up a lot of the rents. has been some response in terms of more apartment construction. hopefully, that will continue. the more that brings down the cost of rent, is taking some time to flow into the government data which is oneeason why you still see inflation above 2% because the rental prices that the government measures are still risingif you look at what the private companies measuring it like zullo and apartment list, you can go online and see that data and they are seeing the ne leases actually

coming down, nuts is growing more slowly. as that feeds into the government data, the hope is that will bring inflation down further and there will be more housing which is a way to do that. host: let's go to christina in cedar rapids, iowa, independent caller. caller: hi there. i just wanted to touch base on a couple of things. we are at an historical time. i think everybody knows we are not going ck to the old ways. we will have a new world but i don't know if the american people have thought about this -- what kind of world do we want? right now what we are getting we are getting a government that will flip the whole country. i think it's time for a lot of change. we keep going down this road and we will keep taking it apart and

head toward human extinction. all we have now is war, we have literally an invasion at our border, we have people that can't trust each other which when i grew up, didn't matter what side you were on. you are still adult enough to be able to sit down and talk i didn't start watching c-span until the pandemic. it' apparent you've got a republican and a democratic side and these people that are in these groups go and the act and they dl alistuff but then they blame it on the party where they blame it on trump where they blame it on biden. the problem here is we need to take individual accountability. host: all right, i want to share stephen's question in michigan. gu that's right. we don't want to blame it all on the consumer.

there's only so much people can do and there is a sense you have to buy. i think we are seeing a lot of what happened in the pandemic as well particularly as we came out of it was people hadthere were stimulus checks and other government support and some higher pay. people had a lot of money and people wanted to spend for a long time during the pandemic. one of the ways as companies raise prices, people could foto some degree, people could pay the higher prices and some say the companies took advantage of that and others would say that natural supply and demand reaction. yes, as some of that post-pandemic spending spree wears off so far, we are headed in a direction where companies are seeing they cannot raise prices is much as they did the past couple of years and that will ideally to bring you down inflation further. host: here is robert on x - est: that's a good question.

many interest rates still are determined by the free market. the-term rate that technically is paid by banks. that rate influencesther rateshe 10 year bond issued by the federal government and that as a benchmark rate that then influences mortgage rates auto loans and other things. there is a role foe free market. even when the fed changes its rate, it can have a delay or a can take time to financial markets because there are market forces but also act. the fed itself decides based on various ideas around how hike rates need to slow spending have sometimes various rules they use as guides. it is more art than science on their end. there is still a role for free-market influence as well. host: what sort of indicators is the fed watching to have the confidence to start cutting interest rates? guest: fed chair powell has made

clear that they are very data dependent and they will look at inflation. there are a couple of different measures of that. the hope is that will be enough to give them the confidence to cut rates. they will certainly look at jobs and unemployment as well. they have what they call a they mandated by congress to keep prices stable and bring them down but they are also expected to keep in high and helped engineer an economy with maximum employment. they will be looking at jobs as well. if there are signsgetting laid off in the unappointed rate goes up, that would encourage them to cut rates. the hope is that inflationy continues to do so even as the economy continues to do well. what i think has incurs a lot of people is chair powell made clear yesterday thats the economy, if it continues to grow and hiring continues to happen, as long as an ration comeshost: republican

in ohio, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. three really quick points let's start out with a question -- what to the following countries have in common? syria, argentina, iran venezuela, nigeria, turkey and the answer is that they are all inion. speaking of hyperinflation, our national debt now increases by about $1 trillion every 100 days. that puts us in a pickle. jerome powell and janet yellen have no way out. if they raise intest raise interest on our debt which will increase faster. if they lower interest rates, it's jobs and increase inflation that way through spending. what is your guest comment on that? guest: that's right, think jerome powell will make decisions about interest rates

without necessarily concernedebt. the higher rates that we have seen already in the fed has said they think they are done hiking rates, they are at the peak of their interest rates for now. that has increased interest cost to the government. a challenge but chair powell has made clear as most fed chair is due that they think the spe up to elected officials and not them. chair powell has said he thinks the deficit is not government congress and the white house should deal with. host: the unemployment rate in february was 3.9%. it increase from 3.7% in january. what was that a sign of? guest: it's a sign of potentially some people worry about some so-called cracks in the labor market. we have still seen healthy hiring and there were a number of jobs added in february.

it's complicated the way the government measures these things. sometimes they can point to different directions and method use on february. the economy added jobs we still saw a rise in the unemployment rate. he still sees the job market is relatively healthy. over time, there's been steady jobs added in the on employment rate is still low by historic standards. it is something to watch. at the bottom, it was 3.4% about a year ago. it has come up since then. it is something to watch even though most indicators for example there is a weekly measure of jobless claims which is how any people have been laid off and are seeking on employment benefits.those numbers are still pretty low, very low. it suggests layoffs are not -- are still very low historically. host: columbus, hi, how are you doing

today? host: good morning. caller: good morning. my question is, as a republican and a lifelong republican, some people don't think it matters butm african-american as well. i live in a two-party household and my m was a democrat my dad was a republican. we are still at that same point with my wife was a democrat and i'm a republican. cancel each other out. my concern of the disinformation from my party tomaga coalition's we are worse off in before and it's joe biden's fault. right now as to the state a very

economy, look at the stock market. it's doing really well which is a benefit for all americans that are invested in the stock market. if you have a 401(k) or an ira where ever are invrethe current party is trying to distract us and it's not. it really isn't. there is job creation, there is there is increased consumer spending. it's all these things that are can tripping to the economy. one thing about immigration is, we need immigration and border to sustain the economy. without immigrants with the

amount of people that are born each year in the united states, without immigrantsble to expand our economy. guest: it has been the subject, immigration has been the subject among economists that they have looked. there is a suggestion that immigration has been higher than people expected and that has helped to fill jobs that are other costs and have opinions about this book more immigration has helped companies fill jobs and expand and we have heard about labor shortages during the pandemic and those complaints of got away. there is this idea and chairman powell has talked about this people fill jobs and that has

helped the economy grow without creating issues. with more people able to work that tells me that demand does help the economy grow. host: you can follow more of his reporting if you go to apa.org. up next, more of your phone calls with republican ralph norman talks about his upcoming notes on the upcoming funding bills. >> dorothy and thomas hugo

vickers latest book this is a book of love letters and every one of them involved a friend of the united states. through this collection of letters we review the writersnerable surprising intimate and deeply personal portraits obscured by their persona. the title is are you prepared for the storm of lovemaking. on this episode of book notes plus is available on the c-span now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. get information for members of the government in the palm of your hand when you order your copy of the congressional.

the congressional directory caused $32 90-5 senses plus shipping and handling is supports our nonprofit organization. go to c-spanshop.org for your copy today for delivery in spring. washington journal continues. host: joining us is ralph north bend there is a deal on the table to avoid a government shutdown. tell our viewers what it is and how you will vote. guest: we receivedcipher it is scheduled to vote at 10 or 11 tomorrow. under what scena would anyone sign off on a 1000 page documents if it were a purchase of a car or house much less bill does

that puts us 1.3 trillion in debt. it is totally insanity. it should not be brought to the floor it's not a good day for america. host: is it a good day for speaker mike johnson if he has to rely on democratic votes to get this through the house? guest: tdo. we have a 72 hour rule that can be waivedk= this important in the overriding issue the immigration crisis in this country nothing should be signed off until we close the border. we relayed concerns and is a good day for mike johnson? no. host: is his job in jeopardy? guest: you would have to ask him that.

he knows the downside of what he is doing. i like mike and i voted for him. i supported the ousting of mccarthy. this is the survival of this country and fi would hope it would be voted down 289 votes and i hope it is voted down but there is a block of us will vote a solid no. host: is there anyone in that block of freedom caucus members who are up to discussing a cas i have not heard that that is always on the table but i haven't heard it. host: why not support this legislation and to will way with another continuing resolution

when there is bipartisan agreement. guest: a good deal is better than a bad deal. look at the earmarks? the first prior authorizations bill had 12 billion in earmarks for special projects and this one is no different. let's say you take that stance that we want to support it have 72 hours to go over it and that's not happening. you have to read or decipher anything before you sign it. how much more that can this country take? 37 trillion in debt when you put social security and medicare oéy#adre

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