Administration's Deficit Reduction Plan
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-04-14/administrations-deficit-reduction-plan
When President Obama unveiled his proposed spending cuts last week, it included four hundred billion from national security over the next twelve years. The president has ordered a high level review to determine where specifically cost savings can come from. When Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered cuts of his own back in January, he said he opposed further reductions in spending. The defense department has acknowledged that the budget cuts would require some scaling back of the military. A look at balancing security needs with budget realities
Guests
Dan Mitchell
senior fellow at the Cato Institute
John Irons
research and policy director, Economic Policy Institute.
Congressman Phil Gingrey
Republican, 11th District, Georgia.
Mara Liasson
national political correspondent for National Public Radio and a contributor at Fox News Channel
Rep. Chris Van Hollen
Democrat of Maryland, Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
Comments
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Overhead in us health insurance is incredible high (24%). This can be compared to French 4%.
As a matter of fact we have the least efficient health insurance among all industrial countries.
About savings, we spend 43% of planetary expenditures on defense. Unless we plan to build a planetary empire, there is room for cuts there.
I am a french citizen that have lived in the US for more than 10 years. I am shocked that the American people do not realize that:
- every citizen should have the right to free education and free health care => these are basic rights in a developed country
- in this country there is a great disparity between the rich and the "average class"
- the rich need to pay taxes, tax breaks for the rich is outrageous!
- the politicians should be reminded that they are "public SERVANTS" and they should protect the rights of every citizen of their country, not just their peers.
Free health care and free education are basic rights for everyone and that should be priority #1 in this country: make the rich pay!
Please ask about the dichotomy between "small business" and "wealthy person". How is it that Bechtel and the Koch brothers (according to Al Franken) can masquerade as a mom-and-pop grocery store? Are we really unable to separate personal wealth from the resources necessary to run a business?
Mitchell? who pays that guy?, and we should return to the Clinton Tax Rates, update the tax code and bring OUR TROOPS HOME!!! That is worth an additional $6 TRILLION over 10 years right now!
Name one country where the government runs something and it works? Really? O.K. the United States, runs the criminal justice system (among other things), works pretty good. Can we have a serious discussion now?
All S-corporations are classified as small business. This includes many multibillion corporations.
If Bush's tax cuts were so great, how come he had so much trouble creating jobs, even before recession struck?
About Europe.
Germany + France export more than US. Germany has one of highest salaries and great social benefits. Unions sit on board of directors of their companies.
Hey Health Insurance CEO's need their yachts. We need Single Payer or Medicare for all now!
Hey Health Insurance CEO's need their yachts. We need Single Payer or Medicare for all now!
The gentleman from the Cato Institute refers to a government bureaucrat deciding whether you can have surgery. My brother is waiting, and waiting for neck surgery due to a insurance bureaucrat deciding whether he can have surgery.
Cheryl
Look at the pie chart! We spend to much on defense. No one is invading. All the money spent hasn't helped with the "war" on terror. Cut defense, go back to Clinton tax rates and stop wastse- no deficit.
I would much rather have a Government bureaucrat, of whom on some level in the Government of the People, for the People and By the People, is responsible to me make a health care decision instead of a corporate bureaucrat, who is beholden to the Government, of the Shareholder, for the Shareholder, by the Shareholder, who has no responsibility to me.
I believe most of the discussion regarding paying for health care misses the real point that the "health" care industry approach is not stainable. It has been overly compensated for treatments that attack symptoms which leads to more symptoms that leads to more treatments. This might be why the US "health" care system is the most expensive in the world and yet the overall health of our citizens is not even in the top ten in the world.
Are you for real? Ask a senior citizen if Medicare works, I'm sure you have a better plan??
How many of your guests have been unemployed for greater than 4 months like I am? I don't think you are qualified to talk about the true cost of health care until you walk in my shoes.
How about removing the tax deduction for companies to provide heath care and let the market set the price of service?
It's frustrating that Mitchell gets away with his incendiary comments and nobody on the panel calls him on it. He keeps talking about "the American people" getting their taxes increased and suffering? Pardon me, but blatantly false comments like that should be immediately exposed. It's the rich who have had their taxes decreased since WWII at least. They should be taxed more, this trickle-down economics nonsense has long been exposed as pure facetiousness.
Furthermore, people who want to balance the budget on the backs of seniors, children's health and education, and the quality of life and health of the disabled - I wish they find themselves one day in a situation where their fat wallets will be unavailable to them, and they themselves have to bear the brunt of these policies that they now callously propose.
Medicare is much more efficient (less overhead) than private sector insurance.
I agree the flat tax is the best way to reform. The tax lawyers and accountants will never let that happen. What would HR Block do then?
Flat taxes are regressive and, as such, favor the rich. 10% of poor person's personal income has a deeper effect on them then it does on a wealthy person. This realization is how we ended up with a progressive tax system. Equally regressive is a national sales tax. The solution is to clean up the loopholes and exceptions. Beyond that, enforcement of the tax code as it is written is necessary to bring funds into the nation's coffers. As a revenue officer with the IRS, I saw many small businesses that were operating outside of the tax code and the IRS lacked the resources to adequately enforce the rules as they are written.
I look forward to the day when Diane can host a guest as progressive as Dan Mitchell from the Cato Institute is regressive in his advocacy of the Oligarchy and not be threatened with losing her show. Diane Rehm has prohibited the discussion of class warfare while allowing Mitchell to present as possible the fascist program of 1925 Italy. No wonder they can't allow history to be studied in schools. And the most terrible part is that there will be no United States to rescue us from whatever Il Duce the T (tribal) Party puts up for a rubber stamp in the next Presidential election. Both political parties are corrupted by corporate funding so that the People desperately need another alternative. A "flat tax" leads directly to servitude and starvation for the majority.The wealthy are playing for the money and not for general prosperity. General prosperity is required for general tax levies. You have to tax where the wealth and income are located or you collapse your nation.
Dan Mitchell is speaking for some terrible people. Why doesn't Diane call him on his whoppers?
Most (80 -90%) of the tax codes and loop holes are directed toward big business. Yet we only talk about eliminating individual income tax credits and deductions. Unlike large international corporations, we do not have armies of lawyers, accounts, and lobbyists to defend individual tax payers. Yes, we should simply the tax codes, but let's start with business and financial loop holes so they can pay their fair shares.
http://blog.faithinpubliclife.org/2011/04/paul_ryan_and_ayn_rand_a_love....
Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand: A Love Affair Against the Common Good
This week's Newsweek features a fascinating portrait of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan as an acolyte of novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand.
Jonathan Chait writes:
...
Rand viewed the capitalists, not the workers, as the producers of all wealth, and the workers, not the capitalists, as useless parasites...
One conservative making that point was Ryan.... He's a Rand nut...he announced, "The reason I got involved in public service...would be Ayn Rand."
...
As Paul Ryan leads the Republicans push towards immoral cuts to programs protecting families and the poor while giving tax breaks to millionaires, we must remember his proposal is rooted in Ayn Rand's twisted view of individualism, not the commitment to the common good that runs through all religions.
We like to look at China and quote their wealth disparity and predict all kind of upheavals this will create. The GINI coefficient is used to look at wealth distribution. Ours is almost the same as China's . China - 46.9, US - 46.8
I love your program and listen a lot. But I do want to give your program some feedback. Quite often you do not have a balanced panel....and it is then hard for me to listen without frustration. On today's program on the Deficit you had a highly partisan conservative from the Cato Institute but no one who represented the progressive view. John Irons is from the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute and did well in attempting to present a reasonable view from an economist....but he was no counterweight to Dan Mitchell. Mara Liasson is a contributor to Fox News and is always expresses cynicism for both sides (in my view more so for the left).
So what was the discussion like? It was dominated by Mitchell's extreme positions with callers having to provide the counter arguments from the left. Callers are rarely in a position to provide as strong a response as a panel member could. It becomes a very frustrating discussion to listen to....and I find myself talking vehemently to the radio!
I see this so much on NPR.....an apparent determination to never appear too liberal.....so the extreme right is represented and someone in the middle is invited as a counter weight. Where do you end up with this arrangement?..a debate dominated by the conservative and none of the arguments from the other side even get an airing.
So hainc wants to buy Guantanamo as a site for his publically insured nuclear plant. Remember, it's near the water, and it's near the ocean, and it's near the seafood and every other convenience. And it's tax free offshore! And when it melts down it will take out Fidel.
@ Pat Durkin, and those that want to cut defense:
When was the last succesful terrorist attack on American soil? The terrorists are just a little busy right now avoiding getting squashed by our troops. Having the largest Army in the world, means taking the battle to them, or would you rather be fighting it in our cities? Think 9-11.
Being a Super Power comes with responsibilities. Not just to ourselves, but to the rest of the world. Defense spending, ensures that our troops have the latest and greatest equipment available, to help them get their job done, and to bring as many of them home alive as possible.
Having been a former Naval Aircrewman, I can tell you, I wouldn't want to be in a 1000 foot hover in a helicopter that was held together with bailing wire and a prayer. Would you?
Tax the wealthy at the same rate as the middle class. Tax Large business at the same rate as the American working class. Then, the might of the military will remain, and we could afford it. The USSR had a magnificent military. Now, Russia has spent so little on it, they could not defend themselves against a true military invasion. Everyday life on a Sub or in an aircraft is more dangerous, because they cannot afford to keep their equipment up.
If you like being able to vote, have steady power and water, or even type what you want on your internet connection, don't screw with the people dying to preserve those rights.
"I support the troops." means, in your heart AND with your wallet.
Dennis Manske
We don't have the largest combat army. We have the largest desk army.
We are so good we sent our troops in unarmored Humvees.
Disregarding the fact that South Africa invented mine resisting vehicles in 70's.
Obviously money does not buy us competence.
My rights are under constant attack from people like John Roberts and Paul Ryan.
Where they're being defended is in courthouses, legislatures and the Congress.
Ms. Rehm,
I want to echo previous comments criticizing your choice of guests. Trying to produce a "fair & balanced" panel is one thing, allowing panelists to go unchecked with their lies is something different altogether. Unfortunately, the inclusion of someone like Dan Mitchell - and the free pass you give to people of his ilk (e.g., refusing to discuss "class warfare," when HE was the one who brought it up) - is not a new occurrence on your show, which leads me to believe you have an agenda of your own.
NPR & PBS are the last line of defense we have against Right Wing lies. The continual capitulation to the conservatives must end now.
I also see this as a trend. Not balancing with equivalent experts. This is not the first time I see unbalanced show in which right wing nonsense gets unanswered.