Suzanne Malveaux Asks Bill Bennett What 'Tough Choices' Americans Are Willing to Make to Reduce the Deficit
After Republicans just insisted on blowing another huge hole in the budget with the extension of these Bush tax cuts, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux asks Bill Bennett what "tough choices" Americans are going to be willing to make in order to reduce the deficit. Of course, that sacrifice is only going to be asked of the working class and not the rich.
Bennett pretends this is going to go over better with the public if there's a bipartisan effort to put the screws to the most vulnerable citizens in the country. I've got news for you, pal: It's not.
I wonder what "shared sacrifice" Bill Bennett is willing to make for his country to keep the deficit under control?
MALVEAUX: Let's start with the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll.
You've got two-thirds of folks who say, look, we're very concerned about the federal deficit, cutting this, and we've got eight out of 10 who say we don't approve of earmarks. But put it up against some of the tough choices that Americans are willing to make here and it doesn't look like they're willing to make those tough choices.
Up against Social Security. When it comes to which is more important, reducing the deficit or preventing cuts in Social Security, 19 percent to 78 percent. Medicare, the same kind of numbers, reducing deficit, 19 percent. Preventing cuts in Medicare, 79 percent. And then taxes, when you take a look at the taxes, increase the federal deficit to pay for tax changes and unemployment benefits, 41 percent favor, 57 percent opposed.
So what do Republicans do? Ho do you square this when Americans themselves are not willing to make those tough choices to reduce the deficit.
BENNETT: A couple of points, Suzanne.
I think this is pretty typical. You ask people, do you want to cut the deficit? Yes. Is the deficit problem serious? Yes.
Well, how about cutting this program? No, don't want to cut that one. Well, how about cutting this program? Don't want to cut that one. So that's been the case historically in most surveys.
The second point, the argument hasn't really been made yet, I don't think. Look, Barack Obama has spent a lot of money. Whether you agree with that spending or not, this has been a big spending administration.
George Bush spent a lot of money too. So we haven't had a president come forward with a Congress and say, look, these deficits get further out of control, we're going to go bankrupt as a country. I don't think the argument has been made yet, so I think it's premature.
Third, most of the plans I've seen, like Paul Ryan's roadmap and some of the other plans, the deficit commission, the bipartisan deficit commission plan, talks about cuts in the future. You announce the Social Security people, for example, they're not going to be cut now, but if you're below 50 or 55, we are going to raise the age and cut benefits based on means testing.
MALVEAUX: And you would support that?
BENNETT: I would, but I would also support other reforms as well. It depends -- a lot depends on next spring, how the arguments are made, whether Democrats and Republicans can make them together. I think they can. I hope they do.
MALVEAUX: How severe would you say those cuts should be in, say, Social Security?
BENNETT: Let's just think of this -- supposing you took the Barack Obama budget which proposes $3.8 trillion -- that's the 201 budget -- George Bush's budget in 2008 was -- or, yes, the 2008 budget was $2.9 trillion. That's -- if you froze it, if you froze the 2011 budget, 2008 levels, you would save almost $1 trillion.
And I don't think anybody would say -- could fairly say 2008 was a hardship time. But if you just went back that far -- and this, again, is the most bipartisan of all approaches, which his you freeze everything. So everybody's dog gets less of a bone. That, I think, would save a lot of money and is doable.
MALVEAUX: You've got a couple of folks, obviously the incoming House Speaker, Boehner, who's talking about he sees about $100 billion that perhaps could be saved. You've got Senator Coburn, who is saying perhaps $200 billion.
A lot of Republicans are saying, you know what? You've got to make cuts in education.
You were a former education secretary. Do you think that's the right approach? Do you think there are areas that this country can cut in education. And now's the time?
BENNETT: Well, I certainly think you could absorb some in the Education Department. I like Arne Duncan, by the way, and think he's doing some very good things.
But they had a part of the stimulus package that was $100 billion. My entire budget when I was education secretary -- I know it's ancient history, but it was $14 billion. I mean, it's way, way up.
So, yes, I think you could cut education by a substantial amount. But forget singling out education. Do the freeze of 2008 levels. You save almost $1 trillion. But here's the point -- in the spring, we make this argument together, as Democrats or Republicans, or the argument could be made that we will all be undone and the country will be undone. We cannot sustain what we're doing.
MALVEAUX: Let's talk about the lame-duck session of Congress really quickly here.
BENNETT: Sure.
MALVEAUX: Obviously, the president, on his wish list for Christmas, he got tax cuts for the middle class; a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"; also the New START treaty; health benefits for 911 responders. On the Republican side, they got the tax cuts for all, including the wealthiest Americans, and also didn't have to swallow that huge budget omnibus bill, the whole enchilada.
A poll shows here that the approval ratings for the lame-duck session, Obama comes out on top, 56 percent; Democrats, 44 percent; Republicans 42.
Who do you think won in December?
BENNETT: Close. We -- partisan hat on. We clearly won in November. I think everyone will say that with those elections.
MALVEAUX: Right, the shellacking. BENNETT: But I think -- and he admitted it -- but I think December, he had a pretty good December. I think that's right.
Surprisingly, they didn't get the big one, the big enchilada, as you called it, the omnibus. But he did get "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," he did get the START treaty. Now, not that everybody's all focused on that, but he did get that and that mattered. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" really did matter to him.
I still think that budget deal is more a win for Republicans than Democrats. But there are obviously things in there the Democrats wanted. The big question before us now is who wins in January and February and March? As one of my callers said, "I hope it's the country and I hope folks can work together."
MALVEAUX: All right, Bill. You were true to your word. You did the red, the blue. You were pretty fair, I think. I think you did both sides.
BENNETT: Yes. I don't know if I liked it, but OK.
MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Bill.
BENNETT: Thank you.
The mentality of conservative America:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4rfAqdanuY
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
Why the hell would Susan Malveaux ask this guy what median Americans are willing to do, since he's a rich elite belt-way bubble head? For shame Susan. I thought you were better than this.
If you want the real answer, ask real people, real people out in the streets! Remember when you used to do that?
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
i read somewhere he has a gambling problem.
actually. now that i think about it. he's an excellent person to ask.....
the MSM going to ask all of these wealthy pundits how much they are willing to sacrifice? Will they voluntarily give up their tax cuts? Are they willing to pay a payrolol tax on all of their income? Come on "Fat Bastard" sacrifice along with the rest of us.
...but they ain't wealthy.
Your answer comes at about 48 seconds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m37JkkGjAY&fe...
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
between the beltway bubble and reality just keeps getting wider and deeper.i mean, really; only such a moran could get up and say "And I don't think anybody would say -- could fairly say 2008 was a hardship time. "
really? REALLY?
ornery people should be screaming these idiots down with reality and getting it through to them how far away from the truth they are.... instead, crickets. :( . a bit of anger at these idiots rather than acceptance or complacency would go a long way - people really should be offended at these ivory towerites (not just this one in this instance) rewriting recent histories with every breath. its a sad thing there are too few journalists in the mould of Maddow and the like willing to do real journalism where things are shown as those in the real world see it, not as the moneyed and privileged wished it was.
the sacrifices should come from the criminally
wealthy wall st, the bankers and the f#cking greedy
rich who just screwed the middle and poor classes
to pay for their obscenely disgusting tax cuts from
the gop/teabagger whores.
the extremely wealthy had better start paying their
share of the country's debt or the poor and down
trodden will certainly make things more even using
palin and sharon engle's 2nd amendment rights.....
when you allow everyone to own a gun, not everyone
is sane that owns a gun(s).
We the peons/peasants/workers/serfs have been making big sacrifices in economic living conditions, we have seen our society shift from a self sustained manufacturing economy to credit card based fantasy based economy, complete with reduced earnings and easy inducements to dig our debt graves.
The net result of this Republican/DINO utopia is all around us, we are living the American collapse dream.
The tough choice I am ready to make is to raise the the marginal rate on income over $250,000 to 50%, that on income over $500,000 to 75%, and that on income over $1 million to 90% and to abolish the inheritance and capital gains taxes in favor of treating all income the same under income tax.
I'd be willing to sacrifice the illusion of security.
...anyone who didn't already sacrifice the illusion of security a long time ago either has not been paying the slightest bit of attention or has a brain about the size of a pea. Anyone who's still capable of clinging to the illusion of security is simply no longer capable of thinking rationally -- or indeed, capable of thinking at all.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
What a turd. Sure.....just cut out that 1 trillion difference...which pretty much equates to the stimulus bill.
Eat sh*t and bark at the moon, chubby boy. EVERYBODY wants to cut the deficit with some one else to pay for it. Screw it. I'm all for letting the rich pick up the tab. THEY are the ones who made out like bandits, and 4-5% is nothing to them. They are already eating plenty of cake, as evidenced by this fat boy.
That translate into a social security and medicare cuts. Biggest problem with cutting the deficit is that without that spending the economy shrinks. Best thing to do it to get some of that corporate cash into the working class hand by doing the following: Boost the minimum wage and overtime pay for everyone but corporate officiers.
How about shutting down the damn empire. 700 plus bases overseas would eliminate the deficit.
I just don't understand how anybody is fooled by the republican nonsense. You gotta have a screw loose if you think we can't tax the wealthiest 2% but we can tax the bottom 98% more with cutting this and cutting that.
And then they go on to claim to be christian. ha!
The first are ultra control freaks who want to dominate the world and its resources, the others are wishy washy liberal types who wear sandals and sing songs.
why do we give that fatfuck the time of day? Who the hell cares what he thinks?
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln
... is to cut the military budget by 2/3rds. I'd also throw in ending the $70B/year drug war.
Another real toughie would be to let the Bush tax cuts expire, and instead, reduce health care costs by implementing single payer. What would that save, $500B a year?
We have enormous sums of money that could be redirected.
We reinstate the estate tax, and then start chucking the wealthy, wealthiest first into a wood chipper until enough estate tax liability has been generated to eliminate the deficit. In the spirit of bipartisanship, I'd let the Republicans set the estate tax rates.
No progressive should ever utter a sentence about cutting deficits without saying "first end the war(s) and cut military spending NOW". For the life of me I don't understand why we can't do that much. How is it that the droning wingnut right can get us all to simply argue their talking points without ever really addressing the real problem. Cut military spending (to the bone), raise taxes on the uber rich, fix health insurance, and boom you're there. Don't let them tell us what to take off the table.
Do your own cutting with Cat Food Commission proposals (if you haven't already) at the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13...
Peace Out
Tax the rich. Retroactively!
95% marginal rates on anything over $1,000,000.
Double the Estate tax.
Tax corporations, and charge them for producing stuff overseas.
Then, tax all the greedy bast**ds that are listed above some more, just to teach them so humility and humanity.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Never even a mention of the rich taking a hit / making a sacrifice , that's blasphemy . I cannot believe what's going down in this country , they are literally out to destroy the middle class and eliminate all social programs (including SSI , Medicare ) is what it amounts to , given that half the population / the electorate are absolute ignoramuses , stupid beyond words and totally clueless ... who or what is going to stop them ? Insane and absolute greed rules now , there are no more checks and balances .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
Defense spending by 50%
All corporate welfare
Eliminate the Department of Homeland Security
Create Medicare for all which will help create jobs and save us money.
Republicans are liars and simply cannot be trusted.
Taxing the rich and war spending.
Way to go Democrats. That's how to enter a debate and ensure you'll lose the battles you want to lose.
They've gotten quite good at this.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
I can face those "tough choices" to reduce the deficit. I know that we have to do it. It is imperative.
(1) end the War of Drugs ... declare victory, disband the DEA, adopt the Portuguese or Swiss programs
(2) end the Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen ... declare victory, bring the troops home
(3) end World War II ... close our European & Japanese military bases
(4) end the Korean & Cold Wars ... close all the other 700+ overseas military bases
(5) eliminate ongoing defense contracts that provide overseas support logistics ... including mercenaries
(6) reduce the DoD budget by 80% over 4 years ... give taxpayers the "peace dividend" offered in 1946
(7) disband, disburse 80% of current military personnel ... reinstitute the draft and boost National Guards
(8) eliminate the cap on FISA income limits under $1 Million ... begin means testing for SS & Medicare
(9) adjust income taxes to pre-Reagan levels ... and tax capital gains just like income
(10) eliminate all current farm subsidy programs
It is going to be tough, but I'm certain that we can bring our runaway deficit under control with these measures. I want to thank former SecDef Rumsfeld for the inspiration for proposing these cuts. It was his speech on September 10, 2001 in which he announced that $2.3 Trillion USD was somehow missing from the Pentagon's purse -- missing like small change lost in the cushions of the sofa.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
I like all your ideas but #10.
There are still a lot of small farmers out there, even if does seem like all we have is Big Agriculture.
Did his eyes glaze over when ya asked him what the odds were?
Fuck that dirty rotten Neocon tool.
The rantings of a left wing liberal.
everyone in the federal government is rich by any honest measure.
everyone in the corporate media infotainment industry is rich by the same measure
everyone in a decision making role in America is rich - they are part of the 10% of the population possessing 75% of the nations wealth (they have done well for themselves).
So what realistically is the possibility of anyone of those rich people looking after the interests of the 90% of the population that is non-rich keeping in mind that the notable personality characteristic of the rich is that they are MORE self-absorbed, MORE greedy, MORE ruthless than everyone else - answer: zero.
The American economic/political system can not work for the non-rich. The non-rich have no influence in the decision making affecting their lives. Their only choices are to select representation among the rich vying to use positions in government to make themselves MORE rich, and the only information the non-rich have from which to base their decisions are the lies propagandized by the rich media. Its a system rigged by the rich against the non-rich.
everyone in the federal government is rich
every politician in the federal government
Didnt Dick teach us that, was he lying?
that used to mean drug CZAR.
I am going to donate my job to a deserving person in China.
This is a common and persistent problem among leftist liberals. That is, referring to "the rich." Collectively, rich old white men constitute the Investor Class. Their all-important commitment of money and capital generates wealth that everyone else, down to the whitest of white trash and brownest of illegal aliens, can enjoy. Thank them heartily and humbly and settle in to your coach seat.
Things we can cut from the budget:
- "Fighting the terrorist over there so we don't have to fight them at home."
- The TSA and body scanners.
- Warrantless wiretapping.
- Cut healthcare for all the House of Representatives and the Senate. Also cut their salaries by 75% and issue them a foodstamp card. That's all they really need to get by.
- Close all the "secret" prisons.
- Stop the 24/7 witch hunt of Julian Assange.
That should save us some loot
At 6 billion a week, it would only take a little over three years to save a trillion.
Tax the rich - that's where the money is.
For the 68% of Democrats and others who agreed with the tax give away to the rich, what now? Unfortunately we have a politically ignorant society who is unwilling or incapable of seeing beyond the moment. The inability to understand that giving the little lost under these tax proposals to gain a more stable financial future is just apropos of the American people, who are totally incapable of thinking on an adult level, and understand that this sacrifice now would put off the huge sacrifices to come next year, namely cuts to existing state and local programs, and Social Security and Medicare, which by the way, have nothing to do with the deficit since they have a self-funding mechanism. But don't let that stop the Republicans and pro-wall street Democrats from demagoguing them. Those of us who opposed this deal understood the next words out of the Republicans would be deficits and cutting spending. Now, it looks like Obama and his cronies have locked us into cutting social programs, since the ability to raise revenues with tax increases is taken off the table.
AUSTERITY! Don't know what it means, well you'd better damn well find out, because this nation is going to be suffering through a lot of it in the next decade or so. In short, it means the poor, working and middle people are going to have their asses handed to them, since Obama protected the already protected class with the income tax rate increase, and by adding a cherry on top of their cake with the estate tax deal, by the way, something the Republicans never asked for (don't think Obama is a pro-wall street corporatist now).
We are going to see Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and many other important social programs which protect the vulnerable in our society, and other civil society programs cut under a so-called Democratic, progressive President. When, not if, but when these cuts take place under the purvue of President Obama, you can kiss the Democratic party good bye. It will cease to exist as a viable political entity, because it will be seen as largely responsible for working with the Republicans to return this country to a pre-FDR America.
I've watched inside the beltway Democrats, and Democrats who have wrongly identified the Democratic party with one man, Obama, instead of the core principles of the party, I've watched these people defend this President and Clinton as they have systematically worked with the right to roll back much of FDR's New Deal, and LBJ's Great Society programs. Once they complete the dismantling of those programs by handing them over to private interests, as they have begun to do with our educational system(that's working out just peachy aint it), this party no longer deserves the support of anyone who calls themselves a progressive or liberal. If you are a true progressive or liberal, you stand by your principles; this Obama and the Democratic leadership are not. They operate within the corrupt system in Washington where those principles are used by our leaders as bargaining chips to get their way.
No longer do our leaders represent or are willing to fight for our principles, so, Progressives, are we going to continue playing the right vs left game, or are we going to be willing to challenge this Democratic President and leadership before its too late, because once those Austerity measures are put in place, it'll be too late then!
Guillotine or hanging? Firing squad, or tarring and feathering?
Tough choices.
A former award-winning journalist and lifelong class warrior, keeping a jaundiced eye on the Washington elite.
That could save a fortune right there.
stephen
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