Friday News Roundup - Domestic
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-03-23/friday-news-roundup-domestic
President Obama traveled to Oklahoma urge expedited approval of the southern part of the Keystone XL pipeline; Rep. Paul Ryan released the GOP's 2013 budget plan, which passed the Committee by one vote; a top aide to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney compared his campaign to an "Etch-A-Sketch"; and the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI have opened an investigation into the "facts and circumstances" surrounding the killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin. David Corn of Mother Jones and MSNBC, Jeanne Cummings of Bloomberg News and Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post join Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
David Corn
Washington bureau chief, "Mother Jones" magazine; author of the new book "Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party."
Jeanne Cummings
deputy government editor, Bloomberg News.
Jennifer Rubin
"Right Turn" blogger for the Washington Post.
Related Items
Friday News Roundup Video
The panelists discuss the Trayvon Martin case and the larger national issues involving racism, self-defense laws, and more:
Comments
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The Ryan budget -- allow the "job creators" to save the day. In Reagan's day it was called trickle down; " "voodoo economics." Trickle down was a miserable failure over 30-years -- from the S & L crisis to its ultimate destructive attributes under Bush/Cheney -- where everything was brought down in 2008. So many economic indicators are so much worse now than they were in the 70s: we're asked to entrust the "job creators." It's like " Waiting For Godot" to create jobs
One extra aspect of "competition" in healthcare (or other utilities markets) is the vast dollars that must go into marketing. That's money that must be paid to compete; money that only adds cost to the system. There's no way those substantial sums will create a more competitive market.
But, we must remember that there isn't just a free market. There is where there are alternatives and competition. Then there's the professional market, no alternatives, but competition. Professional markets feature special relationships governed by "fiduciary law" and are regulated by that body of law. Then there are utilities, here there is no real alternative and no real choice. These markets MUST be regulated, if not wholly socialized.
Healthcare and banking are two "professional utilities" and are necessarily complex and flawed. No structural changes will prevent all abuses, but these may as well be socialized or heavily regulated. These markets feature the fiduciary duties though the client and payer are ultimately not the client/patient. This creates challenges to any fiduciary model as the doctor/professional may not fully and honestly serve their client/patient; but serve the payer.
If we keep this paradigm in mind, it's helpful in analysis and critiques of markets. Hate Walmart all you wish, at least we can boycott them. You can't do the same with the electric company.
Hybeerian. Have spent a great deal of time in the Dayton area the last 4 years helping take care of aging parents. Grew up in Dayton but have not spent much time here except for the holidays in over 40 years. So so sad to see manufacturing and unions take such a beating. As all of the old union and WWII fellas that I spend a great deal of time with say the fat cats (my term) "sold unions and American workers down the pike" They all just shake their heads and make comments like this.
Driving around downtown Dayton and the outskirts is so so sad. Empty manufacturing buildings. Have lots of stories about union folk I am spending time with. Metro Parks so wonderful
Encourage folks to either spend time with their senior folk if they are in facilities or go in and volunteer at some of these nursing homes etc. Lots of lonely people in those places. And incredible stories if you get folks to talk about their past. Treasure troves of learning. I am so pleasantly surprised
Please ask the panelist, I believe it is Jennifer Rubin, who is so strident, argumentative and uncivil in her manner, to either control her disrespect for the opinions of others or to not be on the show again. Her behavior is not of the caliber I expect from The Diane Rehm Show's panelists, and is beyond irritating. She does not seem to know that it is not polite to step on others' words or the points they are trying to make. Would she want others to do that to her? In the US, Democracy means that everyone gets to express an opinion, and that it's OK for it to be different from hers. She sounds to me like she is shrieking, and I can hardly listen to my favorite Friday News Roundup!
Dennis Greenia,
AMEN BROTHER!!!! We need less of this in the public airways.
By the way Chris Matthews does the same thing and to such a degree that it makes his show unwatchable IMHO, so it's not just Fox News
I only want to comment on the rudeness of your guest, Jennifer Ruben. I am appalled at her interaction with the other guests. It is not her right-wing perspective that disturbs me, rather, her manner of conversation is abrasive and lacks the courtesy one expects from guests on the "Diane Rehm Show."
I really liked listening to Jeniffer Rubin. While I didn't agree with many of her views on issues, I still found her to be an articulate and engaging speaker and debater. I listen to your show to get both the left and right's views as I am one of the few moderates left in this country and I enjoy a good debate.
I hope you continue to invite her back to your show.
roland wrote:
I am glad I don't live in Florida. I would not feel safe knowing that anyone (especially someone with friends in law enforcement) can get away with murder as long as there are no witnesses and the killer claims self defense.
So Roland: One minority shoot another minority. This would not be big news if this was in Liberty City in Miami.
Mike Sergeant wrote:
"By the way Chris Matthews does the same thing and to such a degree that it makes his show unwatchable IMHO, so it's not just Fox News"
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As well as Ed Shultz, Rachel Maddow, Al Sharpton, etc , etc,
Hey marcus
You very well know who gives the orders at the murrock empire! (and it ain't some hack now at cnn...clue) I can smell a none thinking hack a mile away, especially when they bark the right-wing t-party talking points without FREE thinking thoughts behind their comments!! Now go listen to yore demi-god ditto head and lick yore wounds.
pjunge I all ready knew that and so did most of the folks here. The bigger point is that even when these folks were younger and of clear and crisp minds these insurance policies are complicated and ridiculous. Most of these older gents will testify to having problems when they were younger They would not have put me through if there was and is a solid point there. Choice in health care coverage is way over rated whether you are older or younger. People want covered...they do not want to sink in dough nut holes or get a degree in understanding the complications in insurance policies.
Has the Rehm Team ever had Wendell Potter on
Bill Moyers Journal . Wendell Potter on Profits Before Patients | PBSwww.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/profile.htmlCached - Similar
You +1'd this publicly. Undo
Jul 10, 2009 – In his first extended television interview since leaving the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter tells Bill Moyers why he left his successful
kathleen wrote;
"You feel like you need to be an attorney to understand the fine print, doughnut holes and what is and is not covered"
You do, thats the point. Who makes up the majority of the Congress? Lawyers. It's just them looking out for themselves (when the return to private practice) their brethren. You need a lawyer to turn on your coffee maker in the morning.
pjnuge be honest are you in the health care insurance industry?
"mancuroc wrote:
joemaio says: A real problem with the income disparity in the United States, which jeopardizes our future, is not that the rich are too rich – who cares – but that the rest of us are becoming too poor to educate our children.
You should care. Our nation's productivity has increased to stratospheric levels since World War II, and for three decades or so all income levels shared more or less equally in its fruits. Then the Reagan administration came along, and the real income of wage earners has flatlined ever since, while those at the high end of the ladder have hogged all the benefits for themselves. This didn't happen by accident, it was a series of political decisions on "free trade" (actually, freedom for capital) and taxation. So, joemaio, you are too poor precisely because the rich are too rich"
I think you got your facts wrongs. Reagan term in office created 15 million new jobs.
Hey Kathleen
GREAT call to bad the first response was pretty lame!!!
Dear Diane,
Please ask your commentators not to talk on top of each other, they make it very hard for listener like me to follow what they are trying to tell us. Also, please ask your commentators to be more prepare for the topics that will be discuss on the show. I notice that they are waste time on the air trying to decide how to respond to your questions.
Thank you. Still a great show. Keep bring us good commentators and speakers.
"Mike Sergeant wrote:
kathleen wrote;
"You feel like you need to be an attorney to understand the fine print, doughnut holes and what is and is not covered"
You do, thats the point. Who makes up the majority of the Congress? Lawyers. It's just them looking out for themselves (when the return to private practice) their brethren. You need a lawyer to turn on your coffee maker in the morning"
You got to be kidding. Read the first post on the second hour I wrote on Kathleen if it hasn't been removed.
Say it again!
Your first post doesn't make any sense in this context. You talk about Israel and Muslim (which by the way there in no 'o' in muslim) and death tolls. Hardly a response to my post.
The Friday News Round-up has always been the show I most look forward to each week. I was disappointed today because of the very confrontational, argumentative comments by Jennifer Rubin throughout the program. I enjoy listening to the comments of the newspeople who appear on the show and getting their perspective on the issues in the news. I understand that they all have their own points of view and I may not always agree with them, but in general they seem to try hard to not sound too partisan. Today was different. Jennifer Rubin kept using words like "Obamacare" and "the liberals" in discussing the issues, interrupting the others, talking over them, etc. She didn't seem to fit in the mix, and I do hope she won't be asked back. If she does come back, I will regretfully turn off my radio.
manray wrote:
"The Ryan budget -- allow the "job creators" to save the day. In Reagan's day it was called trickle down; " "voodoo economics." Trickle down was a miserable failure over 30-years -- from the S & L crisis to its ultimate destructive attributes under Bush/Cheney -- where everything was brought down in 2008. So many economic indicators are so much worse now than they were in the 70s: we're asked to entrust the "job creators." It's like " Waiting For Godot" to create jobs"
manray: Obama does not compare to Reagan. Reagan years were prosperus especially in his 2nd term. Bush had unemployement as low as 4.5% in September, October of 2006.
This present guy in office has put us more in the hole.
meangreen, read my post again and get your facts right. However much you want to deny it and however many new jobs there were in his term, once Reagan took office the share of the middle class in the extra wealth generated by greatly increased productivity began to trend close to zero - all the extra income went to the top and it's stayed like that ever since. The norm between World War II and 1980 was for all income levels to share more or less equally in the benefits. Those, my friend, are facts. Every economy has ups and downs beyond any political decision. Who benefits from the economy and by how much is greatly determined by political decisions.
Great to have David Corn back. His forceful truth telling really cuts through the partisan fog around the Paul Ryan budget proposal. As a Medicare beneficiary I know the program doesn't reimbure at 100 percent of costs as I heard Jennifer Rubin state. Not many pay a premium for Hospital Insurance, but Parts B, C and D each has premiums plus deductibles and coinsurance usually apply. Wouldn't most of the Ryan plan savings come from raising our costs in each of those areas plus cuts in eligibility and coverage?
I'm amazed by the comments, but I guess I shouldn't be by now. We have guests ranging from center right to far right, and somebody says the panel is made up of liberals and one fake conservative. The right winger talks over everybody, exceptionally rude and inventive with her facts, and the center right guy is called out as the most, even the first, rude guest ever. I didn't hear the whole show (who could stand that?) but during the part I heard, Corn was patient and reasonable. When he pointed out the inequity of the time given to different guests, and the difficulty in countering fantasy with reality, Rehm actually patronized him! This is why we have to have rules and laws, folks - there are unscrupulous people who take more than their share, and for everybody to have free speech (and other things necessary to make the pursuit of happiness possible) you need to have fair and impartial moderators. Rehm is either a weak reed, or she's in the camp of the pirates.
"Mike Sergeant wrote:
Your first post doesn't make any sense in this context. You talk about Israel and Muslim (which by the way there in no 'o' in muslim) and death tolls. Hardly a response to my post."
Sergeant: I was using that as one example of Kathleen's thinking and when you have read her other posts like i have she does not have much creditablity. She has even use Rev. Al Sharpon to try to prove her point. Not much creditablity there.
Mancuroc:
I did read your post, that is why I quoted you in my response.
There are many factors having to do with productivity like automation that reduced labor and this automation started around 1963.
What makes you think that the top 1% benefited. Reagan increased taxes on the rich from 36% to 38%.
hybeerian wrote:
"Hey marcus
You very well know who gives the orders at the murrock empire! (and it ain't some hack now at cnn...clue) I can smell a none thinking hack a mile away, especially when they bark the right-wing t-party talking points without FREE thinking thoughts behind their comments!! Now go listen to yore demi-god ditto head and lick yore wounds"
-------------------------------------------------
That you can smell anything other than your own patchouli oil is astounding. But as to listening to "yore" ditto head, from this post of yous:
hybeerian wrote:
"Hey Diane
Great show as ALWAYS!! Keep up the good work and Thank you to ALL the people that make the show THE BEST ON RADIO BAR NONE!!!"
You sound as if Rehm is the de facto head of liberals.
Oct 21 what is life like on your planet?
Anyone advocating meeting our energy needs by burning anything at all is ignoring the peril this activity has brought to our planet. This applies to oil, natural gas, biomass, whatever. We have to stop burning things and pumping CO2 in the atmosphere. It's really very simple. Ms. Rubin claims a "shale revolution". I would ask anyone impressed or made hopeful by this concept to pause for a minute and think about where this is headed. There are plenty of hints just from looking at the weather-related problems that have touched almost every corner of the planet in the last few years. President Obama is correct to encourage wind and solar, and wrong to coddle this kind of willful ignorance.
Sugarcookie's comments express my impression of today's Domestic News Roundup exactly. I am a longtime listener and, while I appreciate Ms. Rubin's writing (even though I am left-leaning, as they say), her tone on the show put me off. Perhaps if she is invited back, she can be coached a bit first. Thank you for this excellent weekly program.