Meet the Press with David Gregory

Tim Russet, he is not!  David Gregory is a shadow of what we are used to viewing on Meet the Press.  Having said that, here is my take on today’s broadcast…

David Gregory expects his guest to give him honest candid answers willingly… he might be able to accomplish that with the likes of Newt Gingrich, but McConnell is not Newt.  So he complains that his guest are not being straight-forward.  Notice when Gregory interrupts or attempts to interrupts – time and time again he will demure when he is attempting to interrupt a Republican guest, but persist when attempting to do so with a Democrat!

Gregory states that the President has not been serious about turning the economy around and addressing the deficit issues…  Please, Mr. Gregory, view the records for the first two years of Obama’s presidency.  Recall, please, the loss of jobs (seven hundred thousand a month) in September, 2010 and the turn-around in February, 2011 under Obama.  This President had so many alligators surrounding him the day he took office, I am impressed that he was able to do what he did!

On Medicare, the mere fact that no one currently in a position to receive Medicare ever elected to opt into Medicare!  We all were enrolled into a system that promised to be a safety net for us in our retirement.  Given those parameters, there is no way that you are going to take that program out of use simply because it is top-loaded!  Eisenhower said that any Party attempting to take away Social Security, Medicare, and other popular social programs will cease to exist as a viable political party.  I think that he was/is absolutely right!

When the Republicans decide to come to the table with everything on the table, there will be a meaningful debate with a fruitful outcome - hopefully.  Quite frankly, there are a few issues that the Republicans are asking that will never be considered…

1.       A continuance of the Bush tax cuts is ludicrous, considering that we can’t afford to ‘give away’ seven billion dollars a year for the next two years.  Those tax cuts would add up to 1.4 trillion dollars over their two year extension to the deficit.

2.      Loopholes in the tax code that allow big business to defer any profits that they make overseas.  Those same tax loopholes support the out-sourcing of jobs by allowing those losses overseas to be included in write-offs on their taxes here in the United States.  You simply can’t continue tax cuts to businesses that aren’t willingly to support the demand for jobs here in America.

3.      None of us has ever been able to make our house payments without income… the same is true for the United States Government – taxes are the revenue needed to sustain our government.  Obviously, spending cuts are required as well, but to balance the budget on the backs of fixed income Seniors is ‘never’ going to happen!

4.      Speculation in the Commodities vital to the economy should be banned – the price of gasoline at the pump is not because of the Oil Industries gouging prices.  The speculation is caused by buyers hoarding the oil on the market and driving the prices for that oil up before they sell to the processors of that oil into gasoline.  We can't afford such fluctuations in this shaky economy!

5.      We have to remove the Anti-Trust laws that allow the Insurance Industry to shape the price that consumers must pay to be insured.  Pharmaceutical companies have a choke hold on the American people as well; they should be placed under scrutiny for manipulation of the price of drugs.

Finally, let’s set the record straight!  We hear Republicans stating ‘falsely’, that Obama is the reason that we are in this deficit scenario:

1.      The Bush tax cuts are responsible for three and a half trillion dollars associated with the deficit.  Do the  math… seven billion dollars times five years!

2.      The war in Iraq added another two billion dollars per month to the deficit because that war was financed on credit – it was never included in the budget!

3.      De-regulation of Wall Street and the Real Estate Industry occurred as a result of the legislation ‘pushed’ by the Republicans to support practices that resulted in major defaults by borrowers.  The monkey is squarely on the back of those supporting these ridiculous changes to our economy.

In a democracy, silence is not golden; it is condonance in the face of injustices; it is fear, where the thought of reprisal fosters control – Rodney A. Davis