A little disappointment with The Daily Show

Jon Stewart had a favorite guest on his show Wednesday: Bill O'Reilly. This is just a day or two after Stewart showed a clip of O'Reilly saying that if his taxes increase to 50%, he might just quit. So Stewart asked him about this and some other things in the two parts of his interview below:

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My breakdown of the interview:

So of course O'Reilly fesses up to the fact that he won't quit even if that happens. Of course not. No rich person would. Yet they say they might, and this makes people believe them. Now, I never believed that when I saw the clip, yet folks use that very idea to convince people that they could quit or move away in an effort to keep taxes low. It's BS and the rich know it. The non-rich think "Well, rich people must be smart or they wouldn't be rich, so what they are saying must be true." It's not. Jon did a decent job of trying to tear his argument down here. Bill was really on his game, and much faster than Jon was with quips.

O'Reilly's Solyndra comment was valid, and I though Jon did a decent job of putting the $500 million loan Solyndra got into the correct context. But then Jon should have mentioned all the WASTE that goes into Defense spending. That would have put O'Reilly on the defensive with his own talking point about having the government spend money efficiently. I can't argue against what O'Reilly is talking about when he says he wants to see the government spend money efficiently. How can you? But most politicians DON'T want to see efficiency because their donors will make less money. That's where I take issue with the Right and their ideas of efficiency. Efficiency means CUTS. O'Reilly even brings this up later in the interview, and I think that Stewart rightly puts it into the correct context again.

So then O'Reilly mentions the $16 muffin story. This is complete bunk. ABC news debunked this story here. It's too bad, because Stewart could have nailed him with this one. Disappointed with Stewart. He tried to save face by mentioning the bailouts, but the point was already won by O'Reilly. Stewart tries to paint O'Reilly into the box that most Republicans put themselves into by saying that all regulation is bad and business should be unfettered, but O'Reilly rightly denies that and mentions the efficiency comment again.

End of interview part 1. Part 2:

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Exclusive - Bill O'Reilly Extended Interview Pt. 2
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O'Reilly admits that he's a Democrat in terms of Financial regulation. Great. His flat tax wouldn't work, but the VAT (consumption tax) is awesome and we should do that. (Don't mention to him that is what most of Europe (socialists!!) does). O'Reilly's whine about all of the taxes is dumb. It's not the FEDERAL government's fault that his property, state, sales, etc are so high. Jon then brings up the good point about how little the top 1% pay in income taxes. O'Reilly's attempt to hide behind the other taxes he has to pay is lame, because EVERYONE else is paying those taxes too. Rich people pay income taxes because they have all the money.

O'Reilly's 10% across the board cuts is...nuts. A LOT of spending can be cut, but not across the board. Some government programs work a lot better than others.

Stewart should have brought up the class warfare comments that are all over Fox news, then asked him if Eisenhower is a socialist for having a 90% tax on the wealthy after WWII. It's a shame, as I would have enjoyed hearing O'Reilly's comments on the subject. Stewart's constant giggling was a little irritating, and something I wish he did less of that.

Oh well. Overall, a good interview even with a mildly disappointing performance by Stewart. I think O'Reilly has reasonable views, but he is so bombastic that I just can't be a fan.

Equality

Why do very wealthy people get indignant when someone points out to them how crazy their wealth is (5 homes, private jets, yachts, etc) then these same folks think that it is just fine to point out how 'crazy' it is for low income people to call themselves poor when they own a fridge or a dish washer.

When things are going bad

I'm worried about the future. I'm worried that my kids will live in a world that is much worse than it is now. We can all see the signs. Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer, the world is heating up. Prices are going up while wages stay stagnant. I don't know what to do about it. A lot of Baby Boomers don't seem to get this. It's a crying shame, really. Here we have one of the most privileged generations to ever walk the earth, and they are convinced that the best way forward is to tear everything down (except those things that benefit them directly). I know I'm doing my share of bashing the Boomers, but it's hard not to.

Here is one Boomer who gets it:



HUGE government investment in schools, roads, and other infrastructure were done while the Boomers were growing up. Never has the world seen such expansion and prosperity among so many. But that was mostly low-hanging fruit. After the Boomers came up through that system, they looked at how well their parents were doing and wanted a piece of that action. But somehow it has become acceptable in the past 30 years that selfishness leads to prosperity for all. That is so wrong. Yet the war on those who are less fortunate is gaining steam in its death throes. Jon Stewart points this out well:

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And the second part of the segment here:

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World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over
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For a look an how bad income inequality is in this country, look at what Business Insider put together.

Last week, the President made a good speech. But why NOW?? Why wasn't he saying this 2 YEARS AGO!!! Like Jon Stewart said in last night's Daily Show, he's a TRANSFORMER!! "

Americans must give up the pipe dream that an inspirational leader can govern successfully, and embrace an America whose greatest resource is campaign-driven drivel." 

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Transformer
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We will only see things get better when we learn that selfishness is not the way forward.

Who likes Maternity leave?

Megyn Kelly was against Maternity Leave before she was for it. Thank you, Daily Show!

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So Patty Murray is on the Super Congress

I'm trying to decide what to write to Patty Murray, one of my state's Senator's that is on the Super Congress.

I'll post my letter to her here.

Dear Senator Murray,

Congratulations on being named to the Super Congress. I am proud that a Senator from our state has been chosen to this group. As a constituent, I have some points I would like to make.

If gridlock in the SC happens, I will welcome the enormous Defense cuts that will occur as part of the trigger. We spend way too much on defense. I know this would hurt some of our citizens who work for Boeing here in the state, but so be it.

I agree that Medicare needs to be revamped, but the Republican proposals are simply cost shifting and not real solutions. Medicare should be able to negotiate with drug companies and import drugs from Canada. Fee for service is a broken and wasteful delivery model. I'm not sure what good raising the retirement age does. Protecting the current Medicare model for citizens 55 years or older is simply pandering and as a citizen that must pay taxes to support that current model while seeing my future benefits decline is unfair. We ALL must pay a price here, including senior citizens and baby boomers. Another way to save billions a year in Medicare is to strengthen it's fraud investigation branch. 60 minutes ran a story a couple years ago about how easy it is to rip off Medicare with stolen SS numbers, since Medicare must reimburse all claims within 30 days. The fraud enforcement office of Medicare is underfunded and understaffed. This kind of scenario is exactly the kind of fuel that is used to encourage distrust in Government. This has to stop.

Social Security can be fixed by simply lifting the current ceiling on wages. Right now, Social Security only taxes about 86% of all income. If you raise this to 90% as it used to be in the 80's, then Social Security is fine. Social Security did NOT cause our deficits.

Medicaid gets the short end of the stick on entitlements. It is bare bones already, and cutting it more with make things worse.

Revenues must go up. I am completely ok with having my taxes rise with the expiration of the Bush Tax cuts. My wife and I earned about $110k last year, so I'm not one of the $250k income people who are used as the floor of the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts. We all need to chip in more to pay for the things that we demand of our government. The loopholes that the President mentioned during the debt limit talks should also be in play, as well as oil company tax breaks an the ability of hedge fund managers to only be taxed at 15%. A majority of Americans support higher taxes to pay the deficit. Not just Democrats or Republicans, but Americans. Please listen to our citizens.

Perhaps something that the SC can propose would be the elimination of campaign contributions to elected officials. ALL of our problems with pork and tax loopholes and lobbying and corruption are because of money in politics. Money is NOT free speech, and purging money from politics would eliminate all the other problems that we talk about, like Citizen's United, Campaign Finance Reform, etc. We should have public financing of elections, with a cap on how much each campaign can spend. I want you and all of your Congressional colleagues to stop begging for money and do you jobs of running the country.

The current London riots are a preview of what is to come to our shores unless something is done about the gross inequality that we have in this country.

Yes, we do have a long-term budget deficit, but our priority should be on putting our citizens back to work. I implore you to not let the Republican's talking points infect your discussions with the media and your fellow members of Congress. What is good for business is not always good for America; stop calling the rich 'job creators'; we are not in a country that is over taxed and over regulated; we are in a jobs crisis, not a debt crisis; the stimulus did work, but it was too small; knowing what we know now about how bad it was in 2008. The very markets that Republicans are telling us know best are FLOODING money into buying Treasuries irregardless of S&P's downgrade on our debt. It is so cheap for the US to borrow money right now. This proves that markets are not concerned about our deficit, but about the health of the world economy.

With President Obama seemingly incapable of standing up to Republicans (or not wanting to thinking that it hurts his chances of re-election), this means the task falls to you. Don't let us down.

And please keep your talks secret so that we can avoid the posturing that we saw all sides do during the debt ceiling debate.

I know that a lot of this is a wish list of liberal ideas, but the fact that we have this Super Congress for cutting seems to be a fulfillment of a wish of our right-leaning citizens who despise the welfare state, so why not have some liberal ideas in the mix?

Thank you for your Service,

Travis Fischer

Duh!

Ezra Klein has a post worth reading. What is sad about this is that people are JUST NOW realizing this. To assume that Republicans would compromise is...just nuts. It's not that Republicans are crazy, but crazy smart at playing the game. They are like a spoiled brat kid who knows that her parents won't let anything bad happen to her. So she can do whatever she wants and will get bailed out EVERY TIME. Even if she does get in some trouble, mom and dad are right there to help her. There is never a chance at giving her responsibility and letting her deal with the consequences.

Doom

Who says the US is still a great nation? I'm sorry, but this whole 'US needs to be #1 at everything' while turning a blind eye to the wealthy elite who own and control everything around here are deluding themselves. To still be shocked by the Democrats seemingly helplessness over Republicans hostage taking (yet Obama will still rake in a BILLION dollars in campaign contributions, with millions coming from WallStreet) just don't seem to get it. The system is rigged and we are really doomed. It's just a matter of time.