The RP on the Radio

The RP on the Radio
Jonathan Miller, "the recovering politican" and co-founder of NO Labels, was my guest this weekend. We had a great discussion about the Occupy Wallstreet Movement and the politics of the "C" word---Compromise. You can hear that show at www.WNZF.com

Rick Santorum Interviews on Center:Uncensored Show with Abigail Romaine

I had the great opportunity to interview Rick Santorum on my show--two shows, actually.  We don't agree on quite a few things politically, but I have to say, I do like the guy.  He is sincere and he does not waffle on his beliefs and political stances.  I was able to get him to agree with me that the Dodd/Frank legislation is "not all poison" and that we are in need of responsible regulation.  You can hear the interviews at www.WNZF.com.  Just click on "Show Archives" and scroll down to "Center:Uncensored."

Michele Bachmann to run for President? Interview with Abigail (Abby) Romaine on 'Center:Uncensored Show" WNZF NewsRadio

It was a pleasure to interview Congresswoman Michele Bachmann on my show, "Center:Uncensored."  She practically announced her candidacy and I did make her laugh.  She also gave me an award--"Most creative interview intro!" To listen to the interview, go to http://www.wnzf.com/ and click on show archives. Don't underestimate Congresswoman Bachmann.  She is an important participant in our political discourse. She said she will come back to the Center:Uncensored Show and I look forward to our continued discussion.

John Boehner, Sarah Palin, Floyd Brown and others afflicted with Malignant Social Disease

OK, I have to warn everyone of an epidemic that is sweeping the nation. No one seems to be talking about it but it is serious and it is real. You can hear it on my program, Center:Uncensored.  It is a societal malignancy.  It is the Selective Socialism.  Yes, people, Selective Socialism is sweeping the nation.  Now, socialism is typically known as an economic and political theory but Selective Socialism is a social disease.  Yes, it is a social syndrome sweeping our society.  And if you are uncertain whether you have been infected with this disorder, it is identifiable by several symptoms.  Ok, listen up, you heard it here first, the primary symptom of this disease is political amnesia.  That’s right folks, if you have political amnesia, you might have selective socialism. The second symptom is tunnel vision. 

For example, the healthcare debate—obamacare –is vilified as socialism; as a step toward President Obama’s communist agenda.  But those who vilify it, suffer from selective socialism.

 A few weeks ago, I had Floyd Brown on Center:uncensored—he is the founder of Citizens United, a conservative political action group which produces scary political ads—he created the ad about Willie Horton that killed the campaign of Dukakis--he is also one of the leading advocates for the impeachment of President Obama.  The mantelpiece of Brown’s evidence for impeachment is Obama’s socialist agenda AKA Healthcare reform.  Well, my friends, this man, Floyd Brown and his cohorts, suffer from political amnesia and here’s why: the 2010 Healthcare reform bill mirrors the healthcare reform that Bob Dole introduced in 1994;  and by the way, Floyd Brown worked very closely with Bob Dole back then—he was a part of his presidential campaign team. 

And if we are talking about healthcare reform, we must also talk about the death panels yes, that little provision in the massive healthcare overhaul that Sarah Palin made famous: you know that provision that allowed for payment to physicians that talk to patients about end of life issues and counseling at the patient’s request. I will tell you how we identify the political amnesia: this same provision was in George Bush’s prescription drug bill for seniors in 2003.   Yes, that's right. The 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill passed with the votes of 204 GOP House members and 42 GOP Senators  included end-of-life counseling.

The covered services are: evaluating the beneficiary's need for pain and symptom management, including the individual's need for hospice care; counseling the beneficiary with respect to end-of-life issues and care options and advising the beneficiary regarding advanced care planning." The only difference between the 2003 provision and Section 1233 in the new socialism-inducing healthcare bill is that the former applied only to terminally ill patients. Section 1233 would expand funding so that people could voluntarily receive counseling before they become terminally ill.

I don’t recall the outrage over this provision in 2003—were the republicans and nascent tea partiers for death panels in 2003? Apparently they were for death panels then and for socialism in general because that bill was the largest expansion of federal entitlements since medicare was created in 1965 and before that, social security.  So you see, these folks who vilify the new healthcare bill exhibit political amnesia and suffer from the social disease, selective socialism.

Another example of political amnesia is the wistful yearning for Ronald Reagan, the epitome of small government, fiscal conservatism, and supply-side, deregulation, trickle-down economics.  Oh yes, Reagan and the Reagan years.  It’s a good thing he replaced that spendthrift Carter, yes with his $997 billion deficit.  Oh, and what was Reagan’s deficit at the end of his term? Well it was $2.85 TRILLION. Yes, that is correct.  Reagan’s $2.85 trillion is definitely more than Carter’s; a lot more. Don’t remember this? Well, then, perhaps you, too, suffer from political amnesia and may have been afflicted with this social disease I call Selective Socialism.

Another example of political amnesia as a symptom of the selective socialism that is sweeping the nation, is the wistful yearning for Reaganesque deregulation –if we just get government off our backs, businesses can get back to, well, business, and the money will trickle down.  Well remember the S and L crisis? And I don’t mean when Saturday night life went down hill after Chevy Chase and Dan Akroyd left, no not SNL.  I mean S and L, the savings and loan crisis? Well if you have political amnesia, you don’t remember, but let me refresh your memory….Reagan deregulated the Savings and Loan industry and yes, John Mccain was involved in this too.  Do you want to know what happened? Well, the savings and loan industry melted down and Neil Bush, George H.W. Bush’s son and W’s brother, contributed to this—he was the head of Silverado Savings and Loan.  How much did this cost the tax payers? $160 bilion dollars. Reagan cut spending on Medicaid and food stamps but deregulated the savings and loan industry into the ground costing tax payers billions and billions of dollars.  How is this indicative of selective socialism? Well, we see people hating the government when it aids the poor with food stamps, healthcare—that is vilified as socialism; for redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor BUT when the business’s bust due to their intense greed and reckless abandon of social principles, they get bailed out by the federal government.  They are saved by the middle class and working poor.  You see, it’s socialism for the rich and hardline capitalism for everyone else.

And we can forward the clock to 2008—we have another financial meltdown.  The cause? Continued  deregulation during the bush administration.

Actually, this new set of deregulation started at the end of Clinton’s administration: Phil Gramm, Republican  Senator from Texas proposed a bill that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1999 that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, thereby removing protections between commercial and investment banks.  Then we saw major businesses --AIG, bank of America, GM,---begging the federal government for money.  This bailout for irresponsible behavior is yet another example of selective socialism, by way of redistributing hard-earned money from the middle class up to the reckless and greedy rich.
But here is a bit of political amnesia—remember that wistful yearning for the Reagan years? Well, that S and L deregulation that caused the crisis cost us more than this current bailout—the S and L crisis was 3% of the GDP The cost to GDP for this bailout? Less than 1% of GDP

The second symptom of the social affliction of selective socialism, is tunnel vision, that’s right selective socialism requires tunnel vision and it’s companion symptom, selective hearing.   

We can go back to health care reform for this one.  The symptom of tunnel vision manifests itself in the midst of the vitriol used to describe the healthcare reform bill—beginning with calling it “ObamaCare”—and the cornerstone of a communist agenda by the same people who support Mitt Romney, the Rebuplican presidential front runner for 2012.  Mitt Romney, as Governor of Massachusetts, instituted an almost identical healthcare plan. Does this deter the vitriol we hear about the healthcare plan? No, in fact, a vote to repeal it is scheduled.

  

Another example of tunnel vision as symptomatic of selective socialism can be found with the Bush-era tax cuts.  Since George W. Bush inherited a surplus, he decided tax cuts were in order.  Now, the argument to make the cuts permanent, or at least extended in their entirety,  rests on the notion that,”oh, well, you can’t raise taxes on the richest people because they are going to create jobs—so we need jobs right now, so we can’t tax these people.”  Well, as far as tunnel vision goes, here is what has actually happened: Corporations are experiencing record profits, yet where are the jobs?      

The most recent increase in GDP still isn’t strong enough to make a dent in the country’s high unemployment rate, stuck at 9.6% in recent months. Analysts say GDP growth of at least 3% is needed to bring down the jobless figure, but many don’t expect the economy to perform that well
American corporations, on the other hand, have rebounded robustly from the recession. Tuesday’s report showed corporate profits jumped 28% in the third quarter from a year earlier, to an annualized total of $1.66 trillion.
 Despite record unemployment, corporations have experienced all-time record profits, the highest since the Commerce Department started tracking the figure 60 years ago. They’ve figured out how to make more goods with fewer, overworked, underpaid workers or. worse yet for America, off-shoring the workforce.

This is the corporate American dream – huge profits and few workers to pay.  The truth is, a lowered tax burden is not creating jobs.  In fact, there has been a decline in job growth since the early 2000’s when the tax cut were instituted.  With tunnel vision, we don’t see this fact and maintain the illness of selective socialism in order to preserve the distribution of wealth back to well, the wealthy.

PLAY THE CRYING GAME WITH JOHN BOEHNER

Yes, let’s take a look at John Boehner—he was just sworn in as the new speaker of the house and since he is the third in line for the presidency, we should look at whether he has been afflicted by this insidious social disease, selective socialism.  First of all, he has a very different style than we are used to, he was interviewed recently by Leslie Stahl on the program “weepy Minutes” I mean, 60 minutes: [Check out the show 1/8/11 for all the soundbites.  In this one, he cries repeatedly on the program]

Now, we are certainly not accustomed to this type of behavior.  We have never seen Nancy Pelosi cry, although, I don’t think she can, you know, with all that botulism in her tear ducts.

PLEASE CHECK OUT THE SHOW FOR THE PORTION ABOUT JOHN BOEHNER AND ALL THE SOUNDBITES

 Selective socialism runs rampant these days, particularly in the republican party—the same people who say the health care bill is socialism have no problem benefiting from other institutions that fall under that same banner such as federally funding schools, medicare, and the post office.  These folks must suffer deeply, as evidenced by the obvious symptoms of political amnesia and tunnel vision.

Selective Socialism is a societal malignancy.  It is the boil on the butt of the American populace.

Stop the Rebuttal Huddle: The Problem with Our Political Discourse

This autumn season, we have plenty of national characters to focus on like Witches, Nazis, and Mama Grizzlies.  You know, the extreme political candidates running for office this mid-term election.  This year, we have candidates who have dabbled in witchcraft, dress-up and play Nazi for fun, and claim to be like, well, bears.  These nationalized characters and their extreme actions and beliefs have propelled our political dialogue, sidelining  rational discussion of the real issues that affect us. Free, open and rational speech in our political discourse has been silenced by scary soundbites. Drama has replaced reason.

To paraphrase what  President Obama said in an interview with George

Stephanopolas: “the only way to get on TV these days is to be rude. If you

are rational nobody will listen, but if you say something outrageous, you

will be put on TV in a hot second.”

Nobody listens to the calm voice or the voice of reason.  Instead, we only listen when a congressman screams “you lie” in the middle of a proper joint congressional hearing or that the Democrats want “death panels” or that the “Republican health plan calls for people to die quickly.”   What frames our discussion now are threats to burn the Qur'an on the Right and the "stealing of democracy" on the Left.
Reason has been replaced with what I call the Rebuttal Huddle. This is the practice of culling a questionable point from an opponent’s assertion and warping it into an outrageous claim or soundbite.  The Rebuttal Huddle subverts discussion of the merits of opinions and commandeers any discussion of reasonable compromises and solutions. 

Let’s move away from the Rebuttal Huddle: let’s discuss things calmly and be reasonable.  We don’t need all the hysteria and drama.