Howard Dean now on NPR's Talk of the Nation

[wuushew]

anybody else listening?

[Supply Side Jesus]

1. I'M ON HOLD TO TALK TO HIM!

Jason from DDenver, hope I dont fuck it up.

[AP]

2. Just turned it on. Was he calling Clark a Republican?

Says he's an outsider.

Says people don't like Bush's economy/job losses/deficits

America wants change.

Believe me, I'll support whoever gets nominated

Clinton was an outsider.

Clark nomination won't bring real change.

I didn't know Clark was a republican. Talked to him 6 or 7 times. Was shocked by CNN tape.

Even though he was in military, and he said he wasn't a member of any party, his votes are a problem, and his statement of support for Cheney, Rice, Rumsfield...

Jim Jeffords was my kind of Republican and I voted for him.

Bush isn't do anything to protect national security.

I don't think Bush understands that we have to a high moral purpose in addition to a strong national defense.

[AP]

3. 1st Q: what's your stance on medicare

Huge supporter. Dick Gep couldn't deliver what I did to VT.

As a doctor, know program is poorly run. When father died, I couldn't understand bills (His father was on medicare? Hmmm).

Gep is falling behind. Throwing mud.

What a softball!!

[clar]

15. Your post indicates

that you find it odd that Dean's father was on medicare. Why? There's no means testing for Medicare. My dad was on it too. In and out of the hospital and nursing homes. The billing was such a tangled mess that my mother hired someone to come in once a week just to deal with it. And boy, did they find error after error; double billing, bills for services never received, etc. Most people don't have those kinds of resources and the errors never get caught. Medicare really is in need of some sort of reform.

[AP]

17. I find it odd, because his father was very very wealthy.

Was his father on Medicare?

[clar]

23. Yes

His father was on Medicare. And yes his father was wealthy, though it's my understanding that he wasn't very, very wealthy. My father was also quite well off. Rich people use medicare too.

[AP]

27. I googled and couldn't find anything.

You have a cite?

[stickdog]

31. Would you be surprised to find out that Dean's father collected social

security?

Remember, a lot of NE old money is notoriously tightfisted.

[AP]

32. Who doesn't collect SS? It isn't a means tested program. Correct me if I'm

wrong, but the only reason you'd go on Medicare is becuase you didn't have a health insurance program through your employer, right?

I just find it hard to believe that a former Dean Witter VP, and probably a former CIA agent didn't have a pretty outstanding health insurance coverage.

He probably had really complicated bills because he had such great insurance the hospital was milking that fat cow as much as they could.

[AP]

16. For emphasis: Dean implied father was on Medicare when he died

Although he didn't say it outright, he was trying to say that Medicare is a mess, and used as a personal example the confusing bills from the hospital when his father died.

[bicentennial_baby]

9. Well which is it Dr. Dean?

Is it "I talked to him 6 or 7 times" or is it "he is somebody I keep in close touch with", as he said on 8/24/03?

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0308/24/le.00.html

[TLM]

25. Oh the bahsers find another huge contradition.... yawn.

Talking to someone 6 or 7 times, in what a 2 month period, sounds like keeping in close touch to me.

[DDiamond]

4. I am now

Thanks to you, I am now.

[AP]

5. 2nd Q: I'm having a house party for you tonight. But my concern:

Kyoto accord and cap punishment.

(Another softball from an avowed supporter?)

I'm for cap punishment in extreme circs. Aschcrotf isn't fair minded. Problem that black people get exectued out of proportion.

Kyoto's problem is that it excludes China and Brazil. We can't exempt developing world. I signed exec order bringing VT under Kyoto.

[AP]

6. 3rd Q, from host: Free Trade

I supported NAFTA, good for VT. Supported China's entry because it reduces chance of being attacked by China.

Nonetheless, China is unfair. Like to apply EU-like standards to China -- human rights and labor requirements need to be a condition of freed trade.

VT did well because we trade with Canada. Midwest didn't do well because their mnfg jobs went to third world.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

12. "Being Attacked By China"???

Are you sure you got that right? I would be shocked to learn that Dean believed an attack by China was even a remote possibility, even if we hadn't let them into the WTO.

DTH

[AP]

14. Yes, I believe he used the word "attack"

The point he was trying to make was that when the world is interconnected economically, there's less of a chance of hostilities. Howeve, as is his wont (raise the tension) he said that voting for China meant that China won't attack us, which the downing of that American jet proved (???).

[AP]

7. Q: Tax Cuts

Truth is middle class didn't get tax cuts. But, tax cuts mean tuition and property tax goes up. Bush cut a thousand things because of tax bill.

For Democrats to defend tax cuts doesn't make sense.

[schultzee]

20. If they raised the top brackets to what they were before Kennedy

they could wipe out the debt, but since most of them are corportists now, I doubt that will happen. Canada's tax system is much fairer than ours.

[AP]

21. Paul Krugman said that, if we raised tax to HALF the Canadian level,

we'd have no debt.

Incidentally, one thing I think Krugman misses is that the distribution of the tax burden is key. One of the reasons America is having a tough time now is because the tax burden has mostly shifted to the middle class -- to people who generate social wealth through labor. Meanwhile, we've shifted it off the very large corporations and super-rich individuals who make money through finance tricks, which is bad bad bad for the economy.

If we want a more productive economy, we have to take the burden off of the source of real, durable, lasting, productive wealth in America -- middle and working class labor.

[wuushew]

24. Did Krugman say what the opportunity cost of repealing the middleclass tax

was?

How much revenue would the Kerry plan take in compared to to the Dean plan?

[AP]

26. He said the US is bringing in 25% less than it's spending. He said that

repealing ALL the tax cuts would only reduce the gap to 10 or 15%.

He didn't say anything about the reductive differences between Kerry and Dean's plans. However, I understand that 42% of the tax breaks went to the top 1%, and I wouldn't be surprised if the bottom three quintiles got more than 5% of the breaks, if that much.

So, if you do the numbers, I'm guessing that the difference between Dean and Kerry's plans would result in less than a 1% reduction in the 25% gap Krugman talked about.

And Krugman doesn't talk about it, but I believe that taking the burden off the middle class is going to help people who labor for a living create a little more wealth and have a little more economic and political power, which will help liberalize, and therefore grow the economy, which will reduce that gap even more in future years.

[AP]

8. Q: southern states with large black populations...

we're reaching out.

OK. I'm bored. I'm swtiching over to Tavis Smiley on another station.

[wuushew]

10. He says social security retirement at 67

n/t

[Supply Side Jesus]

11. shit, not enough time, damn.

oh well...maybe next time.

[DarkPhenyx]

13. For anyone who is missing this...

...there will probably be a downloadable version on the TotN website after the interview. www.npr.org

[ima_sinnic]

19. audio will be online after 6 pm EST

http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/

[schultzee]

18. I don't think small business are the answer to well paying jobs

and Dean and most of the other candidates are not willing to do what needs to be done to take our country back: stop the big corporations from leaving in the first place, or place tarriffs on what they sell back here, so that it is not worth it for them to leave.
All the candidates, except Kucinich seem to think making America a big Mexico is just fine.
Schultzee

[Eloriel]

22. If that's what you think,

you're misinformed.

First, "taking the country back" is about FAR more than jobs. It's about a revitalization in the democratic process through a grassroots effort which brings people INTO the political process and makes government and officials responsible and responsive to The People again. He's proving that by raising UNBELIEVABLE money from everyday people, not corporations.

Second, he considers trade a defense issue as well as an economic one. He will make trading partners have labor, environmental and human rights protections in place, including allowing OUR unions to go there to organize. As a defense issue, he is entirely right that countries with large middle classes aren't going to attack us. What was said here was apparently a shorthand version of that comment. AND, he IS in favor of preventing the sale of goods and services here in the U.S. when jobs have been taken overseas IF the other countries don't accept those Fair Trade concessions.

Finally, statistically new jobs are created at the small business level (which can include companies with sales in the millions and thousands of employees), and they DON'T move those jobs overseas. I think he's right on target. AFAIC he covers all the bases.

Eloriel

[stickdog]

30. Since when do big businesses do anything other than exploit the cheapest

possible labor?

[Woodstock]

28. Not sure I liked Dean going on the attack with Clark

I'm a Dean supporter, but I'm getting kind of tired of the candidates attacking each other. I know it's politics, I'd just rather see them touting their strengths & attacking Bush.

[gully]

29. I thought it was great how he said he admired Gep in spite of his recent

attacks against him.

Dean has thick skin. I think he says what's on his mind, which is why so many of us support him. But, defending his 'outspoken' nature is exhausting I must say ;)

GO DEAN!