Friday News Roundup - Hour 1
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-02-25/friday-news-roundup-hour-1
Neporsha Hamlin, center, of Madison, Wis, protests the governor's budget bill at the State Capitol in Madison, Wis., Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011. The Wisconsin governor, elected in November's GOP wave that also gave control of the state Assembly and Senate to Republicans, set off the protests earlier this week by pushing ahead with a measure that would require government workers to contribute more to their health care and pension costs and largely eliminate their collective bargaining rights.
AP Photo/Andy Manis
The Obama administration says it will no longer defend the federal law that bans same-sex marriage. House Republicans propose a plan to avoid a government shutdown. And Wisconsin’s fight over collective bargaining expands to other states. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
Major Garrett
congressional correspondent, National Journal.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg
White House correspondent, The New York Times.
Chris Cillizza
author of The Fix, a Washington Post politics blog, and managing editor of PostPolitics.com.
Friday News Roundup Video
The panelists discuss the ongoing tensions between public employees in Wisconsin and Gov. Scott Walker (R) over the governor's proposal to cut pay and benefits and strip unions of their collective bargaining rights in the state. The "budget math" clearly shows that the issue of collective bargaining is "unrelated" to the state's deficit, said Major Garrett. The panelists also agreed that the governor's statements during a prank phone call this week were damaging, but not likely to be career-ending:
Comments
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meangreen on February 26, 2011 @ 10:10 pm wrote: “The reason for the business tax cut is because during a recovery you see businesses buying equipment and other essentials now that demand picks up.”
That’s the theory, the reality is something else again. After the 1929 stock market crash much the same philosophy was followed. In fact the great cry was “liquidate labor, liquidate everything”. Enter the Great Depression.
During the New Deal a different philosophy was tried, and things started to get better, except that around 1937 or so (I don’t recall the exact time period) deficit spending frightened some people, so the policies were reversed and things got worse until deficit spending was resumed.
Now, I know conservatives love to claim it was actually World War II that finally ended the Great Depression - and I agree. But there’s an ugly little fact they ignore: deficit spending, government programs, and government “control” of the economy soared during the war! So, unless you think there’s some “magic” in “big government” policies used to kill people and blow up nations that allows those policies to be economically beneficial only when used for that purpose, I’d say there’s something “out of joint” in your theories and arguments.
Although I do agree that part of the problem with Obama’s economic program was that he didn’t do enough. We are paying for his timidity.
(And no, I’m not saying “deficits don’t matter”. Dick Cheney said that. I’m saying that things are far more complicated than your simplistic ideology allows.)
hainc on February 27, 2011 @ 9:41 am wrote: “I am sure the thousands of people protesting to keep their cush jobs did vote in November, and they voted their self-interest which was threatened by a candidate for governor who wanted to change the cosy relationship unions have with legislators. However, millions of Wisconsin taxpayers liked what they heard from candidate Walker and Republican legislative candidates and voted for them. They now await the governor and the Republican legislators to follow through on their promises. Right now, their democratic rights are being trampled on by corrupt Democratic legislators on the unions' payroll.
Except, as has been pointed out time and again, the Republi-Cons didn’t actually campaign on this at all. And Poltifact Wisconsin calls such a claim false. - http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/feb/22/scott-walker/...
(Of course, this is an article from February, if there’s been any updates changing the picture I’d be happy to see them.)
Except, as I understand it, the restrictions on collective bargaining are only about benefits and salary hikes, not on whether anyone keeps their “cush jobs”.
Except I note the relationships of the unions who supported the Governor remain quite cosy, since they are exempted from his new law.
And what about the “corrupt” Republi-Con legislators in the U.S. Senate who trampled on our democratic rights because they were on the corporate payroll? I don’t recall “your side” complaining about that!
Nice the way you keep ignoring facts that tend to undercut your cozy world view.
meangreen on February 26, 2011 @ 10:12 pm wrote: “Hey hainc: I kept on thinking that Shru was male. Thanks for the education.”
You were right the first time, greenmeanie. I’m not female. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
Oh, and if you can’t be bothered to get my name right, why should I bother doing so with yours?
Finally!
I apologize to everyone else for all of this. As I said yesterday, I only just discovered greenmeanie’s slanderous accusation that I was lying, and I had to respond. From there I just kept going and going.
Normally, I wouldn’t respond so long after a show aired, but this was a special case.
Ciao!