On today’s BradCast: If you’re still clinging to the idea that elections don’t really matter and the incredibly lazy assertion that “there’s no difference between the two major parties”, today’s show may help you reassess those ill-considered, self-defeating, knee-jerk notions. [Audio link to show is posted below.]
First up, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, explains why he believes it would be better to have an accused child molester, Alabama’s Republican U.S. Senate nominee, Roy Moore, in the U.S. Senate, than to see the Democratic candidate Doug Jones elected on December 12. His argument today that Moore “totally denies” the charges of sexual improprieties with teenagers as young as 14 (sourced to more than 30 people) is part of his Administration’s desperate attempt to pass their massive tax cuts for the rich, at all costs, through a very slim GOP majority in the U.S. Senate. That majority would get slimmer still if Jones is elected. So bring on the pedophiles!
We’re joined today by SETH HANLON, President Obama’s former Special Assistant for Economic and Tax Policy, to explain how the GOP’s proposed tax scheme is being rushed through the Senate during the holidays, in hopes that voters don’t notice that it will actually raise taxes for some 82 million middle-income Americans, while keeping permanent tax cuts in place for the wealthy. And, as bad as that sounds, other provisions are even worse and will result in an increase of $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit, the loss of health care coverage for some 13 million Americans, and an immediate $25 billion cut to Medicare, among other nightmares.
“The number one thing” that people need to known about this bill, Hanlon tells me, “is that this thing is happening now. This bill could be law by the end of next week. It might take longer than that, but they are trying to jam it through the Senate, which is the key to all this, next week. There are reasons why they are doing that so fast. Sunlight’s the best disinfectant and they do not want people to scrutinize this bill to find out what’s in it, to understand the ramifications. So they are trying to get it through as fast as they possibly can.”
“If you want to see what’s really happening with this bill, you look at what’s permanent in it. A lot of it is just temporary, but there’s really only three parts that are permanent. Number 1 is a massive tax cut for corporations. Number 2 is a hidden tax increase on basically every single American household. Number 3 is an attack on the Affordable Care Act. They’re repealing a key part of Obamacare, the ACA, and it’s been estimated to result in 13 million without health insurance, and premiums increasing for people who buy them through marketplaces by 10 percent.”
“This is a permanent tax cut for corporations, paid for with a permanent tax increase on individuals and by fewer people having health care,” Hanlon, now a Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress, explains. He also speaks to whether the ACA provision is included only as a bargaining chip, whether the Obama Administration used similar tactics to get legislation through Congress, and whether there is any evidence that tax cuts of this sort “pay for themselves”, as Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (pictured above with his new wife and new money) and his Economic Policy Adviser Gary Cohn, among others, have asserted in the desperate effort to pass what would be the only major legislation to be adopted under Trump during his first year of office.
But, if all of that doesn’t underscore the difference between Republicans, who support the scheme, and Democrats who virulently oppose it, Trump’s Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, announced today that the FCC’s 3 to 2 Republican majority will vote next month to kill landmark Net Neutrality protections instituted during the Obama Administration. We explain what that means, and how it is likely to result in higher prices for customers and content providers (like BradBlog.com and The BradCast) and slower Internet speeds for sites and consumers who don’t pay up tolls to Internet provider behemoths like AT&T and Comcast for access to the “fast lane” on the information super-highway. It will be, as one of the two Democratic commissioners on the FCC said in a statement today, a “green light to our nation’s largest broadband providers to engage in anti-consumer practices, including blocking, slowing down traffic, and paid prioritization of online applications and services.”
Also today, Trump’s DHS announced their intention to deport tens of thousands of Haitians who came to the U.S. legally after the devastating 2010 earthquake (along with their U.S. born citizen children?), and an Obama appointed federal judge has permanently blocked the Trump DoJ’s attempt to unlawfully withhold federal funding to so-called “sanctuary cities”.
Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report with very cool news for electric vehicle fans and some encouraging news for breathers and voters alike in Virginia (which, once again, underscores that, yes, elections matter and yes, there is a difference between the two major parties, whether you like it or not.) And we’ve also got some good news for endangered elephants, but some bad news for endangered lions in today’s report…
CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!…
[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman_TrumpRoyMoore_FCCNetNeutrality_SethHanlonGOPTaxCuts_112117.mp3]
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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Republicans disbelieve in climate change.
Democrats believe in it.
Both parties promote more polluting activities, although the D’s are more coy about it. Highways expansions. Permanent war preparations. Deforestation. Urbanization. Pretending the Earth is getting bigger (and isn’t merely round and finite).
Note how many Democrats are calling for Trump’s impeachment or pointing out that voter suppression and faith based voting machines put Trump (and Bush/Cheney) into the White House. It’s not zero but not much above that.
The Democratic Party never recovered from the coup d’etat of November 22, 1963.
The Democrats of today are like the Republicans of yesterday and the Republicans of today are like the John Birch Society of yesterday.
“Republicans play hardball and the Democrats play hardly have balls.” — Swami Beyondananda
Yeah, the New Repuglican Tax Plan will pay for itself, just like the Iraq War paid for itself…
An Unsung Hero of the Nuclear Age
Maj. Harold Hering and the forbidden question that cost him his career.
By Ron Rosenbaum
article on Slate
Everybody in America, except for a tiny speck of prospective internet profiteers want the internet to remain as flawed as it is, until our young can come up with something better.
I trust them.
Taxes are the way we pay for social projects like highways, schools, parks, police, fire protection and social services. Corporations claim that with decreased taxes that the influx of money (not in government coffers), that we will have such an increase in wealth throughout the economy that spending and expanded business activity will pay for any lost revenue. This can be done work if the corporations and wealthy individuals receiving the bulk of the tax breaks reinvest that money back into their company, by expanding, increasing wages, upgrading equipment and other processes that put the tax relief back into the economy. There is a logic to this philosophy but it does not work if as has been demonstrated over and over for the past 30+years the companies use the money to buy other companies, buys back stocks and other tactics that raise the value of stocks but does not put money into the economy.
If the corporations really feel that this is the way to boost the economy and increase tax revenues, then they should put their money where their mouth is and put this practice into their company. For example, if a power company wants to expand their revenue they should cut the cost per kW, because the money saved by corporations and individuals will go towards buying more items that will use more electricity and their revenue will increase. Insurance companies should cut their rates because with more money and more items bought in society there will be more to insure so they will increase their earnings by cutting rates. All companies should cut their prices and everyone will have more money to spend on their products, and everyone will benefit, right?
1980 The national debt was approx. 750 billion. Under the great Reagan and Bush trickle down economy the debt increased to 2.8 Trillion The republicans are about less taxes and every time they are in office they have to cut taxes and deregulate. The greed takes over and the economy tanks. The difference between Republicans and like night and day. The r’s are for the rich. The panama papers came out and there was hardly a peep out of the media. Estimated that 21 Trillion are in tax shelters in the Islands. The God loving Republicans are a lying bunch of thieves.
Another reason to support net neutrality is that scrapping it is the next step toward censorship.
If you don’t think there’s any difference between the Democrats and Republicans, then you simply don’t want clean water, breathable air, or the right to be heard.
You are ignorant.
@ NEWMAN – 2.8 Trillion when Bush left. How much when Obama left? So is only bad when Republican’s increase the deficit because they are hypocrites, but it is cool when a Democrat does it and also increases it by 7+ times more than the Republicans, because the Democrat is not a hypocrite?
And why do you have to bring God into this? You sound like a bigot to me.
However, I understand that it is totally “PC” and not at all vile and bigoted to vilify Christians because a lot of them happen to be white as well as male in this country. If you are white as well as male in this country, you are physically and spiritually, judicially and theologically, epistemologically and socioeconomically incapable of being a victim of discrimination period.
Unfortunately, you didn’t specify these God loving Republicans are Christians as well as male so I will assume you were talking about Jews and Muslims of both genders and not Christians and I will just go ahead and call out your comment as hate speech.
@ Larry Bergen
Yep it is precisely that simple. If you support Democrats you are a truly good person, a paragon of society who cares for the future of humanity on Earth. If you support Republicans, you want give birth to a hellish wasteland where everyone is deaf and none can be heard, where no one knows how to read or write or sign language because the Republicans built one coal power plants on top of each school in the country, and two on top of bigger schools.
@ Ralph Crown
Censorship is already happening. If you are regulating the telecoms to make it illegal to discriminate in how it provides services, why is it ok for Google or Facebook or Twitter to ban dissident or controversial voices when they have an effective monopoly over internet search and social media.
Why can Google and Facebook curate their news and search results, make things trend which are not as popular as other content, choose which messages go through or which links are blocked on platforms? These platforms are collectively used by billions of people, the companies are actively censoring. These companies themselves state they want to be treated like a utility, but a utility can’t cancel someone’s account and shut off service because they have a certain political affiliation, sexual orientation or personal/religious belief system that the company disagrees with.
True net neutrality would be decentralized and anonymized (i.e. Kim Dotcom’s Meganet idea) and free from both heavy handed government interference or centralized corporate control.
However, if it is to be heavily regulated, at least regulate both major sides in this equation equally.
SH –
It’s a shame you’re not able to have an honest conversation. Larry Bergan didn’t say “If you support Democrats you are a truly good person”. Ralph Crown didn’t say anything one way or another about Google or Facebook (which, yes, are too large and should be reigned in, in some way. Though, I suspect you’d find reasons to oppose that as well, once you were told why you should oppose that.)
You might win more friends and influence more people if you offered honest arguments for your cases, rather than creating straw men and destroying them.
Sad!
I did vote for Bernie Sanders in the primaries, who I think is a truly good person, but he’s an independent and also wouldn’t have poisoned my water and air. 🙂
SH:
Shhh…