Friday News Roundup - Domestic
A Pennsylvania judge upheld a controversial voter ID law that will go into effect starting this Election Day. Tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants lined up in cities across the country to apply for deportation deferrals allowed by a new federal program. And retail sales in the U.S. rose more than forecast in July, the first gain in four months. Susan Page of USA Today, Major Garrett of National Journal and Lisa Lerer of Bloomberg News join guest host Tom Gjelten of NPR for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
Washington bureau chief for USA Today.
White House correspondent for National Journal.
politics reporter for Bloomberg News.
Friday News Roundup Video
The panel discussed the implications of Mitt Romney announcing Thursday that he paid at least 13 percent of his income in taxes. Major Garrett, congressional correspondent for National Journal, said Romney talked about his tax rate because a voter -- not the news media -- asked the question. Garrett said the Romney campaign has called requests to see Romney's tax returns a diversion. "One thing I've learned in presidential politics is candidates don't get to decide what a distraction is. If voters care about it, it's not a distraction and you have to deal with it," Garrett said.

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For me it is disturbing to see Governor Romney put his wife on TV to say,NO MORE TAX RETURNS...???? Is that what we would get with a Romney Presidency? A guy who puts his wife into the line of fire,while HE HIDES ????
Tax returns again?
Above we see the results of an illegal action by Obama of making and enforcing new legislation changing immigration laws and bypassing congress, yeah everything is A OK with the democrats as long as they can win an election with it.
Hiding, who's hiding something?
The only way Obama could have been allowed to enter prestigious colleges with bad grades and "dazed on drugs" is through a foreign exchange student program, he was not a U.S. citizen on his college applications, a program that would allow for poor grades and an inability to pay for the tuition. Obama went by the name Barry Soetoro when he lived in Indonesia, why is it such a stretch that he did not enter college as a foreign national and not a citizen of the U.S. Why are so many of Obama's records deliberately made unavailable and hidden from the voters, we have a right to find out the truth about who we elected in 2008 and why he has governed the way he has and why we should give him four more years. The only reason someone would need to hide such basic information from the voting public is because the information in these sealed documents would destroy his chances for reelection.
The question being so skillfully evaded is,DID MITT ROMNEY PERSONALLY PROFIT FROM THE SUFFERING OF HIS EMPLOYEES?
Re: So-alled "undocumented" immigrants:
If they have entered the US in a manner that does not conform to immigration laws, they have entered our country illegally. A correct definition includes the descriptor, "crime." Undocumented is a term that should be reserved for those who are legally in the country and awaiting their legal documentation. Classifying these law breakers as "undocumented" is NPR's way of refusing to acknowledge that these people have violated US law. Another anti-American soundbite courtesy of NPR's pablum for the politically correct language police.
The issue of Romney's tax returns is a red herring. How many other presidential candidates have released more than two years of tax returns? Only one or two since Congress passed the 16th Amendment in 1913. Two is the required number. Romney has fulfilled the requirement.
The only reason the Democrats are hounding Romney about this issue is because they don't have any real issues with which to attack Romney.
The ad implying that Mitt Romney is personally responsible for the death of Joe's wife is reprehensible. Cheap, low-down and base. The kind of ad one might find coming out of a desperately frightened incumbent's campaign.
Clifford wrote: "The question being so skillfully evaded is,DID MITT ROMNEY PERSONALLY PROFIT FROM THE SUFFERING OF HIS EMPLOYEES?"
Tough question! let me think about it a minute, um um NO!
Question for you. Do you think Obama and Eric Holder sleep at night knowing their covered up by executive privilege evidence planting scheme that backfired with "fast and furious" and that they are directly responsible for the murder of hundreds of people and therefore drenched in blood ?
The law is "innocent until proven guilty". I guess Harry Reid and President Obama were absent during that lecture because they both have called on Romney to "prove" he didn't cheat on his taxes. Why don't these two stellar politicians prove that Romney did cheat on his taxes, since they are the ones making the accusation?
If you are a 1%er,aka,"Job Creator" of course you don`t care about a tax evader. To many,tax evaders are heroes. To the guy or gal who had their job shipped to China,by a "Job Creator"....IT MATTERS.
I don`t object to the concept of buy 1 get 1 free.In fact I applaud strong independent women. I only object to men hiding behind a woman`s skirt.Mrs.Romney and the boys each have millions hidden,and have their own tax avoidance issues.
I am a blue collar working guy.You want to be my pal and get my vote? Show me you are on my team. What is your plan to return our jobs from China? I don`t hear ANYTHING from you.
Topic:Judge Upholds Republican Party Plank: De facto disenfranchisement of Grandma, Gramps and other Citizens who've voted for decades
Where would America be if the Diebold machines were used, instead of the simple voting box in the 1960’s when all citizens became empowered because of their new access to the power of the vote? Who thinks African-Americans would have been elected as representatives throughout the South if the infamous Diebold machines were in place in the 1960's? With their Diebold machines, systematic exclusion of Blacks and other minorities from the voting rolls, the Republican Party Central Committee's party plank has become disenfranchise grandma and grandpa and take away the voting rights of bonafide U.S. Citizens.
American Citizens are being relegated to second class citizenship. Laws have been passed which require that all citizens- be they octogenarians, war veterans or both- have their “papers” in order. That is, they must have copies of their original birth certificates in order to be given the right that they fought for and their family members died for – the right to vote. If the state they were born in, (e.g., Georgia) has poor records or poor government mechanisms to retrieve the “proper papers”, these U.S. Citizens are being denied access to the voting box in their current state of residence (e.g., Pennsylvania or Florida). This, despite these octogenarians having voted for more years than the ages of those, cloaked in government garb, who push these laws through. There was a country in Europe who created second class citizens, including many of their veterans, who became part of the boogeyman group, by taking away these citizens' right to vote and much more. The boogeymen back then were communists, gays, and Jews. Should we allow Harrisburg or Tallahassee “voter purification laws” to effectively discriminate, to the point of being one with Nuremberg or the Ole Pre-Civil Rights South?
Jim Gamble wrote:
I almost feel sorry for all the conservatives who have been programmed to believe that Conservatism, and that great American, Willard Mitt Romney will win the next election.... if only these lowly tea party soldiers will just hold their noses while visiting the Diane Rehm Show website, and convert a few liberals. But then I start laughing. For starters, you sound like you're trying to convince yourself. And you're certainly not fooling anyone else. the Ryan budget will cost you at least the Presidency, if not the House and Senate, too. Seniors are not going to vote for having their entitlements slashed.
I don't know if it was planned but the choice of Paul Ryan by Romney was absolute genius with it's results. Who would have thought that a weakness could have been turned into a huge positive in a week, the campaign can now pound Obama with the utterly unaffordable and destructive health care act known affectionately as Obamacare. If Romney is this smart and I think he is, I am very excited about the possibilities when he becomes president. Well done Sir!!
Jim Gamble copy and pasted the same post.
come on Jim, put a little work into it would ya!
nohoplophobe:
I guess you must have liked it if you remember it. Good - did I mention that - the Congressional Budget Office projects that the Ryan plan will cost seniors $6500 annually in out of pocket expenses?
YES, I can remember as far back as YESTERDAY! I also remember you got your clock cleaned on this bs.
holophobe:
Confirmation bias is one of the symptoms of that debilitating disease, Conservatism. I would recommend treatment, but with reinfection rates so high, it's probably a lost cause. The fact remains that the Congressional Budget Office projects the Ryan plan will cost seniors $6500 annually in out of pocket expenses. And nothing so far said refutes that. Its like taking enough money out of the pockets of people on fixed incomes to provide Mitt Romney and every millionaire like him, with a tax rate of 0 -1 %. In fact, that's exactly what it does. Seniors are not going to vote for that. [see Kathy Hochul]
Jim Gamble wrote:"Budget Office projects the Ryan plan will cost seniors $6500 annually in out of pocket expenses. And nothing so far said refutes that"
I heard of one issue voters but never one sentence voters before. Jimbo give it a rest. Out of context information is as good as a lie. Obama says he will cut funding to health care providers to pay for his taking of 716 billion dollars from the medicare trust fund to pay for the "affordable care act". These seniors your so "worried" about are already having a hard time finding doctors that accept medicare, after more cuts in compensation these doctors will either close their doors or reject even more medicare patients. On top of that Obama's plan hastens Medicares insolvency, it's going broke fast and your solution is to hand seniors a cinder block when Medicare can't stay afloat even if left alone. Who are you trying to help anyway, are you on a welfare program of some kind your afraid of losing. You can't even come up with any honest relevant information so you put up the same distortion day after day, give it a rest you lost!
"If the value of the subsidy does not keep up with the growth of health care costs, seniors would make up the cost and pay higher medical bills. The Congressional Budget Office projects that Ryan’s plan would raise seniors’ out-of-pocket expenses by $6,500 per year. Obama’s long-term plan to save Medicare, approved under the Affordable Care Act, is to set up a panel of 15 Senate-confirmed experts tasked with issuing proposals to rein in the growth of spending if it exceeds a certain level. The Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB, may only propose cuts to providers, not beneficiaries. Congress may replace the cuts by passing its own or with a three-fifths super-majority.
"
PP:
You conservatives are so cute when you're projecting.
let's just run a little projection of our own, shall we?
Day 1: Romney delivers on promised repeal of Obamacare (ACA)
Day 2: Passage of Ryan budget.
Day 3: Doughnut hole in Medicare opens back up. Seniors know full well how much that used to cost them. They better save their money up to pay for prescriptions, right?
Day 4: Seniors discover that slashing Medicare funds by converting them to block grants to the states does indeed cut their benefits right away. Too late, Grandpa and Grandma, if you voted for it, you did it to yourself.
Fortunately, these people are old enough to know a lying phony like Romney when they see one. That's why they don't like him.
You missed one point, minor really.
The medicare trust fund goes insolvent in 2024 after that the funding will come from premiums and general revenues. Higher fees for seniors and higher taxes for tax payers, and this does not include all the tax increases associated with the "affordable care act" . The tax payers will pay to make up for the 716 billion dollars taken away from the Medicare trust fund to pay for the "affordable care act" Seniors and everyone else are going to pay more a lot more, either through premiums or taxes to pay for Obamacare.
"2012 Medicare Trustees’ Report – What You Need to Know
The Trustees report estimates the HI Trust Fund (Part A) will remain solvent until 2024. The HI Trust Fund will continue to receive revenue (in the form of premiums) even after 2024, so the program will not be bankrupt (e.g., no longer be able to pay for any medical claims). Rather, once the program becomes insolvent, there will not be enough funds to pay for all the Trust Fund’s obligations. Because the SMI Trust Fund (Parts B and D) are financed through premiums and general revenues, technically they cannot become insolvent."
As a side note, I feel almost ill having to defend this bloated and irresponsible system we call Medicare. The system expects no level of responsibility from the recipients of it and no level of responsibility of the law makers that fund and support it. I think I know now what it feels like to be a sleazy dishonest liberal, I am going to take a bath now.
I really want to see Mr. Romney's tax returns. Before November 6.
I believe Tom Daschle was denied an White house cabinet post for not paying taxes. I think we should have a reasonable look at Governor Rommeny's taxes in order to make our own reasonable decisions about if we want to elect him or not. if the standard tax release is five years then we should expect no less.
Jim Gamble wrote:
"The fact remains that the Congressional Budget Office projects the Ryan plan will cost seniors $6500 annually in out of pocket expenses. "
I believe under the standard set by Harry Ried, you need to prove that statement is true, Jim. So far, I have seen no link from you to a CBO statement to that effect.
Ecbg:
You are mistaken. All I have to do is alert seniors that they would be foolish to entrust their benefits to anyone in the Republican party. Any senior foolish enough to vote Republican now will have their benefits slashed. I don't consider the conservatives on this board as reasonable people who are persuadable by argument. As such you are a lost cause and not worth my time. The country I love must be saved from the conservatives who are destroying it.
How is that the commentariot reports on Romney's $100 million IRA and off shore tax shelters (which are if not illegal are suspect) and in the face of Romney stonewalling, just throw their hands up? It seems that the decimation of news bureaus have made it possible for politicians to run out the clock because investigative reporting seems a relic of the past in this 24 hours and it's old news world we live in.
ecgberht wrote: "I have seen no link from you to a CBO statement to that effect"
Really good point, except for being all over the liberal blogs and MSM web sites, I cannot find it directly from the CBO. Sometimes someone needs to step in and point out the obvious. Where is it?
Thanks!
I'm not even going to bother responding to the stupid birther comments. I was hoping those were an extinct issue. What was most interesting about the Pennsylvania voter ID decision was the state admitted, and the judge made a finding was that there was absolutely no evidence of a single instance of voter fraud. How the court could not find that there was voter suppression at the heart of this law and grant an injunction was contrary to every other court that has considered the issue.
Jim Gamble wrote:"As such you are a lost cause and not worth my time. The country I love must be saved from the conservatives who are destroying it"
This says it all Jimbo, you have nothing but lies to protect liars.
Re Romney's taxes:
In order to have at least a vague idea of Romney's taxes we need more than just his marginal rate: Knowing Gross income, Adjusted gross income, and Taxable income as well as taxes paid would be revealing.
As much as one hears "everyone wants a serious discussion of the issues," do network execs or programing managers really believe that exhaustive discussion of budget would be in their best interest as it relates to ratings in a advertiser based media economy? I think not...and most regular folk who say they want this kind of discussion are disingenuous as their viewing habits and internet search habits do not bear out this yearning for budget discussion...important, but a yawner...Hey I heard 98 degrees is getting back together!
@ Claudette
Please be truthful when you post on this forum. Mitt Romney has not released two years of taxes. He has, at best, released part of one year and estimates for the second year. He did not release information for foreign accounts for the single year, 2010, he did release. Most other candidates released their information and he provided 23 years to John McCain in 2008. He can choose to not release the information, but to make it appear he is being pilloried is disingenuous at best.