Interesting things from today's talk shows
My daughter has the laptop, so I'm working from notes, but the McLaughlin Report noted that 75% of Bush's campaign donations and 43% of Kerry's come from Corporate America. We're talking dollar amount. Eleanor Clift broke it out a bit, saying that the biggest contributors to Bush are in the oil, military supply and pharmaceuticals industries.
Why am I not surprised?
Still, Mort Zuckerman groaned about the 30% increase in discretionary spending and the absolute absence of any vetoes at all. And interestingly enough, he said business would be better off short-term with Bush, but long-term Kerry's greater fiscal responsibility (his term) would be better for business.
They also touched on the American prison population.The United States, at a cost of $49 billion per year, houses 25% of all the prisoners in the entire world. And in the conversation, McLaughlin took Buchanan to the edge of a blatantly racist statement by asking him why he thought there were so many prisoners in the USofA. It is, of course, because so many non-Europeans (his term) are committing crimes. But he was let off the hook by being allowed a non-answer to the follow up question, would reducing the wealth and income disparities help resolve that issue.
I have a chunk of an online transcript from The Capital Gang I want to share too.
SHIELDS: Al Hunt.
HUNT: Remember last year when the White House and Congress delivered a prescription drug benefit? Now, we found out earlier that the $400 billion advertised cost was a lie. Now we discover its estimated employers will reduce or eliminate current drug benefits for 3.8 million retirees, or one out of every three.
It gets worse. The Bush administration agreed to give employers $71 billion to encourage them not to drop retirees. Guess what? They still get the money, even if they deep-six the benefits. Drug companies and rich employers benefits; seniors and taxpayers get the shaft.
Isn't that nice?
