Update on Federal Debt Negotiations
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-07-11/update-federal-debt-negotiations
Negotiations in Washington over the debt ceiling have reached another stalemate. President Obama and top Congressional leaders met at the White House last night. But they still remain far apart on the details of a deal. Saturday night, those talks hit a roadblock. House Speaker John Boehner abandoned efforts to reach a $4 trillion long-term plan. He blamed Democrats for insisting on higher taxes. Democrats say raising revenue must be part of a deal. As the debt ceiling deadline of August 2nd draws closer, President Obama and top party leaders will meet again this afternoon. Diane and her guests discuss the high stakes negotiations and the prospects for a deal.
Guests
Charlie Cook
editor and publisher of the "Cook Political Report"
Jeanne Cummings
deputy government editor, Bloomberg News.
Ron Elving
Washington editor for NPR.
Comments
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Drew, "broken record", dude, I have noticed that as well. Spice it up a bit, will ya!
It’s a beautiful thing that compassionate Americans would never end “welfare as we know it” for the wealthy.
Diane,
For what it's worth, I have the following suggestions for Washington.
Proposed Senate and Congress Members Revision Bill
Cuts:
Cut Salaries by 10% - plus first term senators and congressmen accept
salaries of 75% of regular base salary for first two years, if constituency
votes approval rate of 60% for first two years in office award full salary.
Cut pensions by 10%
Cut overseas travel by 50%
Cut speaking engagements by 50%
no pensions unless completed 3rd term of office for congress and 2nd term
for senate.
Cut postal mailings by 25%
cut washington staff by 30%
cut office space and office equipment and supplies by 30%
Cut overall transportation by 30%
Cut advertising by 50%
cut phone and computer costs by 30%
Cut field office staff and expenses by 50%
Other:
Submit annual expenses and savings report to constituency, OMB, and GAO.
Submit list of contacts by lobbyists, special interest groups, and
Business representatives annually to district constituents.
Submit list of bills proposed for passage and those passed annually
Submit report "How the member improved his/her constitutents District during
his/her term of office"
Term limits:
congress 3 terms
senate 3 term
Let me get this right. There was a caller on yesterday who suggested that GOP irrationality was at its heart fueled by racism--I'd like to see more evidence, but I would not suppress discussion of it. Rehm took great pains to chide this one caller about being deceptive about what his actual question was going to be. I've never heard such a thing on the air. What remains unquestioned is the way talk show producers constrain the dialog and debate by vetting the questions that can be asked on air. This is another way in which journalists, drawn largely from the middle class, perpetuate the myth that we are a post-race, post-class society.
I would like to see more discussion of GOP irrationality about this debate, the suggestion that they can win elections but not actually govern, and the possibility that they are simply gunning for Obama. These are the elephants in the room of yesterday's discussion.
Lastly, there was not a great diversity of perspective among the show's guests. If you want to have some real debate, dialog and discussion--of the sort that even William F. Buckley, Jr. would have sponsored on Firing Line, you might have included someone like Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, or Bob Kuttner.
Let's not pretend that false equivalences of GOP and Democratic Party positions perpetrated in yesterday's show were at all illuminating or helpful to the listener.
I have never attended a circus, but the only exposure I have had was watching a circus on television as a child. While the cameras were focused on the tigers, during the performance a tragic event occurred, the tigers attacked the trainer and most likely killed him, since I was young I wasn't sure. The television station kept the cameras rolling as several, powerful water hoses were brought out to seperate the big cats from their trainer. When I became an adult I understood why such a tragedy could happen. I learned how circuses like the Barnum & Bailey Circus used cruel training, painful hooks on elephants to gain compliance and other aggressive means on the big cats designed to command submission so these exotic animals would perform unnatural, boring tricks show after show. These same creatures suffer tremendously in cramped cages and trailers as they are trucked from city to city hundreds of miles to the next performance.
So when I think of the word, 'Circus' suffering animals comes to mind. Though I know Erin Morgenstern's book is referring more to the Cirque du Soleil type of circus without exotic animals, could she be inadvertently encouraging people to attend a Barnum & Bailey type circus who abuse their animals as the preferred method of training and control? Maybe Erin could make a formal statement against using animals in circuses in writing and at the beginning of every interview. I heard Erin being interviewed on the radio and she sounds like a lovely person, but there are those in the general public who hear the word 'circus' and think only of the Barnum & Bailey type of circus.