estate, boxing, wrestling, beauty contest, television, construction. never been the tar guest criminal investigation. that's astonishing in new york city. >> a conversation with long time journalist and publisher peter osnos sun night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q and a. welcome back to our desk, california democratic congressman joining us on the day that congress is set to vote on a two week funding extension to keep the government opened through december 21st. you've been through these funding fights before. where does this end? >> it will end in a positive way. there is no appetite that i can see or feel in congress for a government shutdown. it would take a president that simply refuses to accept anything other than his $5 billion for a wall. that being the case we'll see what happens.

but there's no appetite for it. >> is there any appetite on the democratic side of the aisle to meet the president halfway on that wall, perhaps to a habilli dollars? >> there's always a deal to be done. >> what's a good deal? >> $1.6 billion. a wall paid by mexico isn't going to happen. so what's a wall will do when there are many other things that can to be done. electronic surveillance, all kind of ways that are much more effective than a wall. a wall and fence is important in some place. some needs repaired. some needs to be extended. >> president wants a wall on the border. there's a lot of u.s. troops on the border. you're a member of the armed services committee. how long will they be there? >> not much longer. because the election is over. those troops went there for

election purpose. election is over. they will be coming back to their bases and it's very expensive. probably somewhere in the range of $60 to $100 million down there. troops need to be doing other things, exercising military programs, being prepared to deal with the contingencies of war and peace. >> a lot are in california. have you visited the troops on the border? >> not this round. i have in the san diego-tijuana border. they continue to provide specific services. >> what are they doing now? >> on the border? looks to me they are putting up wire and standing around wondering what in the world they are doing there. like i say, the political season is over. they can come home now. >> if you want to join the conversation, phone lines as usual. republicans 202-748-8100. democrats 202-748-8000.

i want to talk about another issue that we've talked about before on this program and it's the lead story on today's "washington post" and several other papers, the new report out about global carbon emissions reaching the highest levels on record according to projections by scientists that came out yesterday. this is after two years in which global emissions were largely flat and now rising again. >> what does mr. trump want to do? he thinks coal is beautiful. when all of this is over, two generations from now, the sea level has risen a meter, three feet and cities around the world are flooding and continuing crisis of hurricanes and fires are decimating the populations of millions or hundreds of millions of people are forced to move because of climate change, they are going to look back on the president trump era and say why did you do this to us? why did you do this?

to us. future generation will vilify this president not because of the obnoxious and incredible things he's doing with his tweets but rather what dein removing the united states from leadership on the climate crisis. it is horrendous problem. his presidency has many, many problems but no problem reaches the heights of his refusal to deal with the climate crisis. >> what can do you with the new congress to solve this problem >> hammer away at the issue. i've been doing this since 1978 when i authored the first law in california and nation for tax credits for solar wind and conservation. this is a huge ongoing crisis. it is not a new one. but the united states has to be a leader. and we can't lead when you have a president who refuses to even acknowledge this san issue. >> what are your thoughts on the

lead yarl in "usa today" to save the planet create a sirp lobby on this issue, say what you will about the national rifle association, it's been successful. now it's time for climate activists, businesses armed by global warming, everybody else who cares about the fate of the earth to take a page from the nra playbook. >> whatever is necessary. whatever kind of lobby is necessary and there are many different organizations out there. usually they have different slugs. but what they really need to do and what we need to do in congress is to coalesce around this issue and develop a specific set of solutions. we know what they are. we know we need to change the energy economy of this nation. away from carbon fuels. that means tax policy. that means investment. that means research. that means that the united states needs to do what it did when it decided to build an interstate highway program, when we took on world war ii.

it is the coalition of america's greatness around solving this problem. solutions are known. you got to go to renewables. you have to move away from carbon. you need a tax policy that accomplishes that you need incentives to do the green economy. what's that take? that takes that congress over there to lead and i will tell enthusiast, the democrats in the house of representatives will lead. we were elected to lead in a different direction and we will do so. public spoil one. when we talk about infrastructure we'll be talking about infrastructure that's green infrastructure. we won't be talking about enhancing the coal industry. or the oil industry. we'll be talking about the green economy and investing in ways to do that. electric cars and all the rest. >> a caller is waiting to talk to you. john from hot springs arkansas. line for democrats. go ahead. >> congressman, our reporter to day on npr that september the

10th, 2001, one day before 9/11, donald rumsfeld said there was money missing from the budget of the pentagon, this is back one day before. next day 9/11 happened and knocked that story right off the headlines. i'm wonder if you guys in congress have ever discovered where that money is and i understand since then there's been even more money missing. we're spending enormous amounts of money on a defense budget. i understand we spend more than the next eight countries combined, including russia and cline. >> well, you certainly raise a critical issue one that's been plaguing the pentagon and military for decades, really and that is there has yet to be a full audit of where the money is spent on a yearly basis by the military.

it's over $700 billion. almost three quarters of a trillion dollars annually for the department of defense. about 50 or 60 of that goes to support the wars in afghanistan where we hatch spent over a trillion dollars on those wars. >> they tried to do that audit recently and failed in that audit. what's it going to take for the pentagon to pass an audit. >> it will take congress to continue to hammer them which we have and will continue to do. give republicans credit in this last congress they hammered them, went after them together with the democrats. we'll continue to do that. there's 700 plus billion dollars flowing into the pentagon. where does it go? how it is spent? some is misspent or not used sitting in accounts in one place or another. we need to continue to go after this. therefore, the new democratic leadership on the house armed services committee of which i'll be a member, and quite possibly

one of the leaders, we will hold the pentagon accountable. are they spending the money? are they spending the money wisely? frankly, are we giving them the direction that they need. >> president trump wants to see a 5% cut from the pentagon's budget. is there room to cut >> probably. that's our task. >> where? >> start with the new nuclear arms race we're engaged in with russia and china. it will be over a trillion and a half dollars over the next 15 years or so that we'll spend on building new nuclear weapons and new delivery systems for each one of those bombs. the result is a very, very dangerous world in the decades ahead. >> madison, mississippi is next. call independent. good morning. >> congressman, i'm a retired military. i travel all over the world and i do see the global warming is

an issue. i just look at china. i was in riyadh during desert storm. africa there's not a lot of vegetation. but what's happening in the last 40 years, a lot of countries cut their timber, trees. we got to get back putting vegetation on the earth so it can absorb the heat from killing everybody. >> well, you're certainly correct. first of all, thank you very much for your service in the military and in those particular wars and very, very dangerous areas and you correctly observed what we call the decimating of vegetation. the pentagon said wars of the

future will involve the migration of people because of climate change and that definitely is happening in many, many parts of the world, and we're seeing some of that happening here in the united states as various parts of the country are drying up or burning out as they happened in california over the last month. so, yes, it's a very, very real problem and it will lead to conflicts and war in many, many parts of the world. >> william from oklahoma, democrat. good morning. >> good morning. how are you? good to talk to you. thank you so much for speaking with us. i'm 74 years old and i've always voted. but i'm really having a problem with our definition of democracy. i'm not sure now i even know what democracy is. at the federal level i can't vote on any issues or any

problem. i can vote for the president but maybe that vote may be nullified by the electoral college. i can vote for my representative or senator but actually he may not be mine, he may represent the opposite party, and thus he'll support those that support him or her. and i'm having a problem trying to figure out where is this democracy? >> you've raised a very, very important secht issut of issues that's how we conduct our democracy here in america. presumably every vote counts and every eligible citizen that's 18 in most every place, 18 years of age and a citizen of the united states should be able to vote. however, what we've seen in the last elections, particularly this one in november, is that, that is not the case. in many parts of the country,

state government, local governments are enacting specific programs to strict voting. we saw what happened in georgia more than 100,000 people removed from the roles and voting places shut down so that people had to line up for hours to vote or couldn't even get the polling places. we have to change that and i will tell enthusiast. the very first bill that the democrats are going to introduce in the house of representatives on january 3rd is hr-1. hr-1 deals with voting rights across this nation. we're going to do everything we can to stop the activities of those who are repressing and stopping people from the ability to vote. we've seen what's going on in north carolina right now. we see efforts across this nation to restrict voting. hr-1 will stop that. it also deals with the corruption. requires that there be light shined upon every contribution,

no more black p.a.c.s or contributions will be allowed. we'll have every person, every individual, every corporation, every political action committee that's involved in an election will be required to report where their money comes from and to whom it is going. we think this is one of the most important reforms so our democracy can actually work. and one more thing. thank you for your concern. >> i think the caller was talking about being a democrat in a red state what can do you about stark division between red states and blue states people going their separate camps and not talking to each other, anyone in the other camp? >> get involved. get involved in the electoral office. get involved in running for office. support candidates. win or lose. it's a process. no you won't win all time. i've lost a couple of races. i've been in 34 of them and lost

two. but that's okay. and it's when people cannot, when they attempt to get involved, when they attempt to vote and not allowed to vote because of system put in place that this democracy fails. >> 34-2 not a bad record. kathy, independent. go ahead. >> good morning. i was really disappointed in the opening statement about the border, because the people -- i'm sorry, i was watching tv. >> that's okay. >> people's position have never changed, and in california there's a lot of problems with voting, what you were just talking about too because i don't think it's right that you can only vote for one of two democrats in a lot of the positions on the elections. but the biggest problem at the border i see is for the past 30 years people's position has not changed.

i want a close border. i remember when governor brown sudden the federal government to close the border and it's all of you that have changed. unfortunately, you know, you've been one democrat that i supported over the years and sad to hear you say this this again because it's been 30 years and decades can of people wanting this and politicians running on closed borders and never doing it. now we have a president that's doing it. then you sit on there and say that. i just want you to know how disappointed i am. >> i didn't say no border security. i said be smart habit how about how we spend the money. a big, beautiful wall b isn't going to solve the problem in many parts. there are many parts of the border and there's a necessity to use modern technology to be able to secure the border. absolutely, we need to secure the boarder. but we need to do it wisely and to spend your tax money, my tax money wisely. with regard to the top two going

forward in california, it is wrong. the previous caller talked about being able to vote. california voted for a. top two going forward and it is wrong. it's wrong for the republicans. it's wrong for the democrats. it's wrong for the process. and i seriously oppose it. and have since the institution. which was put in place by a republican when i was lieutenant governor. we disagreed on this issue. >> since we were talking about california, do you want to focus on the third congressional district for a second and the impact of wildfires there. you have already talked a little bit about that. >> we have seen the effect of climate change. we're seeing the fire season in california now 365 days. it has been in southern california for several years. we now see the effects of a very warm climate, winter rains, rapid growth of the vegetation and then the the heat comes in

and things get very detroit. we're also building our communities into the wild land urban interface. that's what happened in paradise. a horrible tragedy. >> how far away is paradise from the third congressional district? >> 15 miles. many of the refugees, many of the survivors of the fire wound up in my district at the fairgroun fairgrounds. it's a horrible, horrible situation. the community of 26,000 essentially gone. >> to ohio, steve, democrat, good morning. >> good morning. us would just like to say that i would support a wall that is to please donald trump. let's build a wall that he can fit in. something like a chimney. >> well, there have certainly

been political cartoons that would be along that line, but the reality is we have to spend the tax money wisely and effectively. the previous caller talked about border security. i can assure you the democrats want border security as much as the republicans. and frankly the republicans are not thrilled by building a 2,000 mile border wall. they want to spend the money wisely just as we do. >> to texas, tony, republican, good morning. >> caller: good morning. please bare with me. i'm an old man and you have very important stuff to say. the problem with our government, republican or democrat, is you're all crooks. you lie about everything. please don't cut me off. america is in trouble. y'all are taking over the white house and y'all are killing people for no good reason.

and you're not one thing you have done to help the american people. you're killing us and you're destroying the world. >> tony, what specific thing are they lying about? what do you want to focus on? >> caller: one thing, what are we doing in yemen killing poor, innocent people when we're not even supposed to be in war? why are we guarding afghanistan. >> let's focus on those. >> that's pretty good agenda. let's start with yemen. we ought not be supporting saudi arabia and yemen. it's an undeclared war. congress has the only authority to wage war has to come from congress. congress needs to take its control back and we need to put a stop to the yemen war. >> how close is congress to getting a bill on the floor to do that? >> i think we're going to do it in the house of representatives. it looks like the senate may actually do it.

will we be able to come to an agreement to reign in the current activities of the trump administration in supporting saudi arabia? i think the answer is is yes. i think we will. and i think et we ought to. not just because of the terrible results of the yemen war shs the famine, the tens of thousands of people that have been civilians that have been killed in that war. but also as a very strong message to saudi arabia. would we be able to go to msb and say you're responsible and hold the crown prince accountable? probably not, but we can hold the saudi government accountable. with regard to the trade, it's an ongoing issue. clearly, the various war lords, it's probably folks that we have supported.

we use that money to wage the kinds of war and conflicts that have so disrupted that country and killed hundreds of thousands of people including almost 6,000 americans. a member of the armed services committee. >> caller: i'm going to be qu k quick. number one, as it relates to immigration. the only reason that people don't want immigration from latin american countries is they don't want them to come in and vote for democrats. there's an opposition to it. we don't have a problem with the border. we don't have drones of people coming across the border. but ultimately, that's what the opposition is. as it relates to hr-1, the question that i have is public financing in hr-1 is lobbying

reform in hr-1 as it relates to ending and occluding this proliferation of lobbying efforts once people leave office. and lastly, mail-in ballots in hr 1. >> yes, yes, yes and yes. all of those things are included. you have to get into the details on some of it. there cheerily is points of hr rf 1 to deal with early ballots. and all of those things are in hr-1. the details, we don't have time to with regard to the other questions you raised, i don't

have the et details with me right now, but with regard to -- i'm not sure i got all the questions that you raised. >> mail-in balloting, financing for safe governments. and i would really like and it's not in hr-1 but i'd like to change the election day from tooz to saturday and sunday. so that people have time to get to the polls, and look at their ballots. right now it's tough for people to vote. if they cannot do and do not do the mail-in ballots, how can can they get there. >> time for one or two more calls. go ahead. >> he was talking about making

public about the dark money and stuff. i would hope that they would put in there all the lobbyists and what congressmen and senators get money for the lobbyists and how much the lobbyists get. >> it may need to be expanded but all the campaign receipts and contributions that members of congress and people that are running for congress, we do have to report all of that. the problem lies on the other side and these are the independent expenditure committees. this is where the dark money is. and frankly, there's far more money coming congressional and senatorial elections from these independent committee than there is directly contributed to the candidates.

>> my question is america is supposed to be the light of democracy. why are we trying to carry democracy at theened of a gun barrel to the world. >> unsuccessfully, clearly what we're seeing with the current president is a movement away from one of our core values. that is not part of the trump administration or the president's ethics. there's many more things that are involved in that certainly support for countries that are trying to move up in their economy and in the democracy and et we need to make sure that we use diplomacy. if we're going to use a gun, you have to have diplomacy with it. >> congressman, always appreciate your time.