Friday News Roundup - Hour 1
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-02-18/friday-news-roundup-hour-1
The Fed expects the U.S. economy to grow at 3.9 percent this year. A bipartisan group of senators considers a deficit reduction plan that could trigger new taxes. And protestors converge on the Wisconsin state capital over budget cuts. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
John Dickerson
chief political correspondent for Slate.com and CBS political analyst and contributor. Author of "On Her Trail: My Mother, Nancy Dickerson, TV News' First Woman Star."
Susan Page
Washington bureau chief for USA Today.
Jerry Seib
executive Washington editor, The Wall Street Journal.
Related Video
Diane and guests explore Wisconsin's intensifying budget battle which has brought thousands of public employees out to the state capital in protest of Republican Gov. Scott Walker's plan to cut public-worker benefits and pass legislation that would nullify collective-bargaining agreements:
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Okay, now I really must be going. But keeping posting Cicero. I promise to come back and respond another time if you do.
Again, thanks for a lively debate!
@Etaoin Shrdlu,
You are obviously clueless about Olbermann's historical problems with all of his employers and fellow employees. He probably resents creating his Frankenstein Maddow monster, who managed to exceed his meager ratings.
NPR is a "place in the media universe where you can consistently get a thoughtful, informed, and rational discussion of all sides of an issue?" Since when? Every NPR show, even Car Talk with Click & Clack, is hosted by a liberal(s). Diane's Friday News Round Up is a ratio of 3 liberals to one conservative.
Why would you imagine a POTUS Obama interview with Diane Rehm or Bill Moyers would be "productive?" How is fawning over someone whom they consider to be the savior of the liberal agenda amount to productivity? Both of these aging hosts have trouble recollecting facts and rely on their producers to provide info over their ear piece. Considering this scenario and NPR's admitted agenda, it does not inspire confidence in the scant number of non-liberal listeners that such an interview would produce anything of substance.
I have to say that I think its time to bring some new voices to your show. When you have two guests reviewing pending legislation on the budget, and both of them agree that the real work all comes down to making significant cuts to Social Security and Medicare, you're really only giving voice to right-wing extremism. Defense spending cuts, anyone? Or, if we're that close to a fiscal emergency, how about a moritorium on the interest paid on the National Debt. Wall Street speculation and bogus financial transactions are in large part responsible for our burgeoning debt, so how about letting financiers bear the costs?
Unions are key to maintaining a reasonable distribution of wealth. Since Reagan had success in union-busting this effort to eliminate unions has been going forward. Not letting a good crisis go to waste the current economic problems are being used to finalize this push by conservatives to remove any obstacle that allows corporations freedom to set all the rules. My mother retired with a teacher's union retirement and it was a pittance. Have we forgotten the heroes of 9/11, Firemen? Now, when an educated public is the best chance we have for economic growth we want to decrease benefits? What person who can find a job elsewhere is going to take a low-paying, low-benefit job with little respect to be a teacher? Why is this burden falling on the public employees?
@Lee black,
"Unions are key to maintaining a reasonable distribution of wealth"
Spoken like a true socialist. The only thing the NEA and AFT accomplish is to protect incompetent teachers and stifle the advancement of competent ones.
I also felt that the liberal side of the discussion was missing. There were no specifics mentioned, e.g. what are the salaries of the state workers involved? what are their benefits? exactly what benefits were promised in turn for their promise not to bargain for better pay during the last round of state economic crisis?
It wasn't mentioned that teachers and state employees do not get social security. My experience is that teacher's retirement benefits and health care have always been lagged behind the private sector. There was no mention that education is the key to having an educated and competitive work force in the future. There was no discussion of keeping good teachers in the schools.
The conservative movement's efforts to eliminate collective bargaining was not brought out. I felt that so many issues were missing from the morning's broadcast. I did listen for the entire hour hoping that we'd hear some counterpoint to the conservative points.
And what about the entitlements of the members of Congress? Congressmen (and women) have the audacity to vote to raise their own salaries. Then, to add salt to the wound, they accept outrageous pensions that the American citizen pays for and have the best insurance in the world that again we pay for, not them. It's a great job--- high salary, great pensions and great insurance, and they don't have to pay a thing.
Tell me, Diane, when the young lady brought this point up earlier this week during your radio program, you allowed your guest to turn "congress people" into Federal workers and didn't stop to correct him. It was quite obvious that she was talking about the ENTITLEMENTS OF CONGRESS PEOPLE and not the federal work force. How can you begrudge pensions and insurance to workers who pay for them out of their own paychecks, salaries that are usually 50% of what comparably-educated workers make in industry, yet not discuss the entitlements of elected officials of the federal government? I'm sure if Congressional people were forced to contribute to their own pensions and pay for their own medical insurance, the deficit would be far less.
To the Disingenuous Etaoin:
In many states Police, Firefighter, and State Troopers are not allowed to walk off the job even though they are part of unions. The reason being is that these entities are essential for a stable society.Why do you think the military is not allowed to unionize even for those individuals that have made a career out of it. Think NCO's.
You keep saying that last year the Republicans filibustered the budget. As intelligent as you think you are, do you not remember that the Dems/liberals were in the majority and did not need Republican support to pass their budgets. The problems were in the Democratic s themselves who would not accept "The Messiah's Budget".
To the Disingenuous Etaoin Shrdlu
"That’s something I’ve asked myself for decades, and it all began with Reganomics, which truly promised you could get everything for nothing. I don’t know what excuses America for buying into that; Reagan (of course) can plead his inability to separate fantasy from reality (and Alzheimer’s)."
Can you give me an example Etaoin? If I remember he saved SS in 1984. We had to pay more into it.
To the Disingenuous Etaoin Shrdlu:
Who wrote.
"Well, gee, let's see now. As you noted, the Tea Baggers were hardly models of civility, but their right to be a pack of loud-mouthed violent thugs was staunchly supported by Faux News and Squawk Radio (which engage in the same conduct themselves), and after the Giffords shooting calls for civil discourse were condemned and treated with mockery by these same groups."
Where is your civility Etaoin? Gee whiz, did I miss something. I saw those protesters at Madison saying the Governor was a Hitler. There is even a picture of "cross bows" towards the governor. Bring back memories of the Giffords shooting. Did not see any of this on ABC Evening News, I wonder why?
To the Disingenuous Etaoin Shrdlu:
Who wrote.
"Oh, and why do you assume that when a company goes bust it must be due to “irresponsible pension commitments”? Is that what sunk Enron, AIG, Lehman Brothers?"
No it perhaps did not. However GM had problems not being able to pay their obligations to their retirees. This was one of the reason they did buyouts. Just their medical payments that covered retirees added something like $5000 to the cost of every car.
But yet we had Obama who took a private company and made it a government entity. This resulted in millions losing the bonds and stocks they had invested in.
To The Disingenuous Etaoin Shrdlu:
Who wrote:
" Not mine. All I thought was: Gee, I wonder when we’ll see Republi-Cons submit to an interview with an unfriendly commentator. Will their candidate for President be interviewed by Maddow?
Seen it a number of times on "The View". I've seen that loud month babe Joy not give the other person a chance to speak or walk off the set with pal Whoopie.
UNION Discussion Part 1
Diane, your show is always stimulating, but I found the discussion about the UNION situation in Wisconsin lacking the depth of intellect that you and your colleagues are known for.
UNION's absolutely did and do serve a legitimate purpose for the worker in a private employment relationship as they balance the power of that employer against the individual employee and provide an equilibrium that would otherwise not exist. As an example, the workers on the infamous "Gulf of Mexico" BP oil rig deserved to be in a Union to protect them from what happened there.
In my opinion, however, UNION's do not belong in a public employment environment for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that public employment leaders (Presidents, Governors, Mayors, et al) are too transient to ever be a threat to public employee rights.
UNION discussion Part 2
The result?? SEIU (The Service Employees International Union) has become the largest UNION in the country, contributing inordinate amounts of money to political campaigns everywhere, leveraging unseemly employment terms and benefits from hundreds of national, state and local government organizations and creating an inextricable link to hundreds of thousands of public employees who would not be able to find a job normally in the private employment workplace.
Ask any legitimate senior executive within the Federal Government about their ability to terminate or discipline a UNION employee and they will tell you that it has become nearly impossible without a prolonged 2 year administrative process. Many will also privately concede that there is a real problem of nepotism and cronyism within SEIU.
As an example, let me pose a couple of questions. Where can a 26 year old graduate of VA Community College get a job, paying $126,000 a year? Answer: The FBI. Pre-requisite: Must be hired by uncle who is shop steward at FBI.
UNION discussion part 3
Second Question: How is it that US-DoH employees are able to work from home, surfing the web, donating two hours per day to employment? Answer: The UNION helped them gain this permission via grievances related to the stress of their previous daily commutes to work.
There are many other examples one can find about this situation Diane. It’s a national phenomenon that disturbs a lot of us Democrats also. It was not appropriate for your guests to turn the Friday discussion about Wisconsin into one about Republicans victimizing people to destabilize Democrats, etc. UNIONS are important in a private employment context (e.g. Wal-Mart), but they do not belong in a public employment context and your guests never addressed that central argument. Shameful. Please do address this UNION problem legitimately in the future.
Cicero:
Great example of unions protecting their member is the New York Teachers Union. A few years ago 20/20 had a segment where it takes something like 80 procedures to get a teacher fired. There is even a chart. Teachers that have been accused of questionable behavior stay in some building being paid while their cases are being reviewed and it can take something like two years before it starts to get resolved.
It would be nice if the folks that populate shows like this would take the time to understand the differences between Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It would be nicer still if, when they say Social Security is running a deficit, they mentioned the facts that Social Security is a standalone program, which has no impact on the national deficit and that the deficit they claim it's running consists of its cashing in some of the T-bill it has bought with the tremendous surpluses they've run for decades.
If we're going to have a rational discussion about the problems we face, it's imperative that our journalist, who will have an important part in the discussion, have a good understanding of the subjects at hand.
It is irritating that your panel continues to use "entitlements" as a way to describe social security. Clearly the panel all have the same talking points and if they say it enough we will all soon believe it. Unless someone calls in to correct their language the discussion continues.
Social security has and will be seriously weakened by the recent tax cut package a back door way to continue the lie that the social security fund is unsustainable. A simple increase in the ceiling tax rate in terms of social security contribution would solve the problem.
The question we need to ask is "What is the end-game?"
When the oligarchs already have everything- What is the end-game? I just find it so disheartening to believe they are working so hard to drive the majority of this country land, food, air, water and people into a dark and miserable poverty.
@meangreen,
All one need do to realize the perfidy and benightedness of the teacher unions is to look at the Wisconsin protestors. That these people are certified to teach anything other than socialism is indeed disturbing.
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