Burner and Reichert on KUOW
[ed: KUOW just reported that Barack Obama will be taking a day and a half off the campaign trail starting Thursday morning to visit his grandmother Madelyn Dunham in Hawaii. His grandmother is reportedly quite ill. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to the entire Dunham and Obama families. Update: this DailyKos story has a few details and an address where well-wishers can send postcards.]
Darcy Burner and Dave Reichert are on tonight's episode of KUOW Presents. Their segment is scheduled to air at 9:20. Liveblogging (and inevitable typos) to follow, so stay tuned.
The segment is starting. It's going to be 10 minutes with Darcy, then 10 minutes with Dave, interview by Ross Reynolds.
Here's Darcy Burner's segment, questions in bold:
How are you handling the dislocation from the fire?
We're doing ok. We've rented a house with a back yard and blueberry bushes. We'll be ok in the long term.
Are you seeing any effects of the economic crisis in the 8th district?
Yes, lots. I've met many, many people who are having trouble finding work, refiniancing houses, who have lost huge chunks of their retirement savings and are now concerned about being able to retire.
Do you agree with Reichert's statements against the bailout package?
I do agree. The money is clearly not being spent well (AIG's $440000 "retreat", etc). The bailout doesn't address the root causes of the problem, and is extremely prone to abuse. The Federal Reserve has done some good with its efforts to un-freeze the credit crunch. That's to the good. But we need to make sure this doesn't happen again. We saw this happen in the Great Depression, it happened in the S&L crisis in the '80s, and now again because we don't have adequate oversight of the financial industry. Reichert and those like him who are running on a "deregulate deregulate deregulate" platform are doing terrible damage to this country. It's absurd that the nat'l debt has doubled in the 5 years since my son was born. We need real fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C. When the government does a bailout, taxpayers need to get equity and those investments need to structured in a way that gives taxpayers a decent return on that money.
What government programs could you see being cut?
Shrink-wrapping pallettes of cash and shipping them to Halliburton. We're going to have to get smarter about investing in things that grow the economy, rather than spending on things that achieve nothing and get us nowhere.
Your plan for tax cuts?
Double the standard deduction, the dependent care tax credit, make permanent the sales tax deduction. That's a $4000 savings on federal income taxes for the average family in the 8th district.
Reichert says that doesn't make sense because it mixes itemized and non-itemized deductions [ed: or something like that. I didn't quite catch the question].
But congress gets to decide how this works. If my proposals worked under current tax law, I wouldn't need to make them. But Congress can decide to permit people to itemize AND take the deductions I'm proposing. People need help now. Incomes have gone down by about $1000/year over the past 8 years, while the cost of living has gone up by about $9000/year. That $10,000 gap, driven largely by fuel and housing costs, is forcing people in this district to go to food banks just to make ends meet.
What about Bush's tax cuts?
Those tax cuts were passed through Congress with an expiration date built in. Certainly I believe that any tax cuts targeted at the middle class should be preserved. The marriage penalty should be addressed, etc. But wealthy individuals and profitable corporations should pay their fair share, and right now that's not happening.
Who would you define as wealthy?
The better question is to ask who is currently not paying their fair share. For example, hedge fund managers who avoid taxes by paying a lower capital gains tax rate instead, even though it's not their money they're investing. All I'm asking is that they should pay income taxes on their income, regardless of how they got it.
[Reichert's turn]
What about the economy?
We'll get through this. America will be ok. Our unemployment rate is up at about 6% in WA, people are now starting to feel the impacts of the economy here at home.
What about the bailout?
I voted no twice. On both occasions it was based on lack of protections for taxpayer money. The administration had to come ask us for it, because Congress is the keeper of the purse-strings. Even Pelosi didn't like it. I had the same questions as she did, but she voted yes and I voted no.
But given that the bailout package passed, how should the money be spent?
There have to be protections put in place for that money. We need to have the expert hearings that are taking place now, testify before congress, answer the tough questions to find the reasons we got her and then apply solutions. Increasing the FDIC cap was a good thing.
Burner says you and other Republicans are responsible for deregulation.
My response is that pointing fingers is not the solution. [ed: convenient answer, Dave, especially when the fingers are pointing at your party.] It's not one thing that caused this, but a series of things over decades. [ed: true enough, and just about all of those dominoes were pushed by folks named Nixon, Reagan, Bush, McCain, and Graham. Here's a great capsule history of that very series, folks. Highly recommended reading.] One thing that has come out is that some people lied about their incomes to get loans, and banks didn't follow through to check up before giving them a mortgage.
700 billion for the bailout. 2 wars. Yet you supported Bush's tax cuts. How does that add up?
Good question, and I had the same question. How are we going to pay for Soc. Sec, Medicare? But I voted no twice on the bill. One thing that would create some confidence would be to let the FDIC chairman have a seat on the oversight board. With Paulson in control, it's like the fox guarding the henhouse.
Are we seeing signs that the bailout is working?
Some signs, but hardly full recovery. The market hasn't come back up nearly as much as it went down. The administration has had to use a shotgun approach.
[ed: right about here Dave got cut off for the end of the segment. In all fairness to him, the answers to his last questions didn't have as much of a chance to be coherent as they could have because of what I felt was a poor job by Ross Reynolds of actually letting him answer the question. Ross interrupted Dave at least twice, interjecting new questions, and derailing that part of the conversation. On the other hand, if Dave was a direct about getting to the point of his answers in the first place, without first trying to spin up a framework in front of his answers that makes him look good, I don't think he wouldn't have gotten interrupted. So, not a great job by either of them, there. It may have sounded great on the radio, but as someone trying to take notes all I can say is that although Burner talks faster than I can type, at least I don't have to listen to her prattle on wondering when the actual answer is going to start; it starts immediately.]
Darcy Burner and Dave Reichert are on tonight's episode of KUOW Presents. Their segment is scheduled to air at 9:20. Liveblogging (and inevitable typos) to follow, so stay tuned.
The segment is starting. It's going to be 10 minutes with Darcy, then 10 minutes with Dave, interview by Ross Reynolds.
Here's Darcy Burner's segment, questions in bold:
How are you handling the dislocation from the fire?
We're doing ok. We've rented a house with a back yard and blueberry bushes. We'll be ok in the long term.
Are you seeing any effects of the economic crisis in the 8th district?
Yes, lots. I've met many, many people who are having trouble finding work, refiniancing houses, who have lost huge chunks of their retirement savings and are now concerned about being able to retire.
Do you agree with Reichert's statements against the bailout package?
I do agree. The money is clearly not being spent well (AIG's $440000 "retreat", etc). The bailout doesn't address the root causes of the problem, and is extremely prone to abuse. The Federal Reserve has done some good with its efforts to un-freeze the credit crunch. That's to the good. But we need to make sure this doesn't happen again. We saw this happen in the Great Depression, it happened in the S&L crisis in the '80s, and now again because we don't have adequate oversight of the financial industry. Reichert and those like him who are running on a "deregulate deregulate deregulate" platform are doing terrible damage to this country. It's absurd that the nat'l debt has doubled in the 5 years since my son was born. We need real fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C. When the government does a bailout, taxpayers need to get equity and those investments need to structured in a way that gives taxpayers a decent return on that money.
What government programs could you see being cut?
Shrink-wrapping pallettes of cash and shipping them to Halliburton. We're going to have to get smarter about investing in things that grow the economy, rather than spending on things that achieve nothing and get us nowhere.
Your plan for tax cuts?
Double the standard deduction, the dependent care tax credit, make permanent the sales tax deduction. That's a $4000 savings on federal income taxes for the average family in the 8th district.
Reichert says that doesn't make sense because it mixes itemized and non-itemized deductions [ed: or something like that. I didn't quite catch the question].
But congress gets to decide how this works. If my proposals worked under current tax law, I wouldn't need to make them. But Congress can decide to permit people to itemize AND take the deductions I'm proposing. People need help now. Incomes have gone down by about $1000/year over the past 8 years, while the cost of living has gone up by about $9000/year. That $10,000 gap, driven largely by fuel and housing costs, is forcing people in this district to go to food banks just to make ends meet.
What about Bush's tax cuts?
Those tax cuts were passed through Congress with an expiration date built in. Certainly I believe that any tax cuts targeted at the middle class should be preserved. The marriage penalty should be addressed, etc. But wealthy individuals and profitable corporations should pay their fair share, and right now that's not happening.
Who would you define as wealthy?
The better question is to ask who is currently not paying their fair share. For example, hedge fund managers who avoid taxes by paying a lower capital gains tax rate instead, even though it's not their money they're investing. All I'm asking is that they should pay income taxes on their income, regardless of how they got it.
[Reichert's turn]
What about the economy?
We'll get through this. America will be ok. Our unemployment rate is up at about 6% in WA, people are now starting to feel the impacts of the economy here at home.
What about the bailout?
I voted no twice. On both occasions it was based on lack of protections for taxpayer money. The administration had to come ask us for it, because Congress is the keeper of the purse-strings. Even Pelosi didn't like it. I had the same questions as she did, but she voted yes and I voted no.
But given that the bailout package passed, how should the money be spent?
There have to be protections put in place for that money. We need to have the expert hearings that are taking place now, testify before congress, answer the tough questions to find the reasons we got her and then apply solutions. Increasing the FDIC cap was a good thing.
Burner says you and other Republicans are responsible for deregulation.
My response is that pointing fingers is not the solution. [ed: convenient answer, Dave, especially when the fingers are pointing at your party.] It's not one thing that caused this, but a series of things over decades. [ed: true enough, and just about all of those dominoes were pushed by folks named Nixon, Reagan, Bush, McCain, and Graham. Here's a great capsule history of that very series, folks. Highly recommended reading.] One thing that has come out is that some people lied about their incomes to get loans, and banks didn't follow through to check up before giving them a mortgage.
700 billion for the bailout. 2 wars. Yet you supported Bush's tax cuts. How does that add up?
Good question, and I had the same question. How are we going to pay for Soc. Sec, Medicare? But I voted no twice on the bill. One thing that would create some confidence would be to let the FDIC chairman have a seat on the oversight board. With Paulson in control, it's like the fox guarding the henhouse.
Are we seeing signs that the bailout is working?
Some signs, but hardly full recovery. The market hasn't come back up nearly as much as it went down. The administration has had to use a shotgun approach.
[ed: right about here Dave got cut off for the end of the segment. In all fairness to him, the answers to his last questions didn't have as much of a chance to be coherent as they could have because of what I felt was a poor job by Ross Reynolds of actually letting him answer the question. Ross interrupted Dave at least twice, interjecting new questions, and derailing that part of the conversation. On the other hand, if Dave was a direct about getting to the point of his answers in the first place, without first trying to spin up a framework in front of his answers that makes him look good, I don't think he wouldn't have gotten interrupted. So, not a great job by either of them, there. It may have sounded great on the radio, but as someone trying to take notes all I can say is that although Burner talks faster than I can type, at least I don't have to listen to her prattle on wondering when the actual answer is going to start; it starts immediately.]
# Posted by Jason Black : 8:58 PM
Comments:
Jason -
Politicians are difficult to interview live. They often try to run the clock out so I interrupt to get them back on track.
BTW save your fingers. There's a web site that transcribes our shows automatically. There are lots of mistakes, but it can be easier to edit than to type it from sratch. Here's a link to the Burner Reichert show http://tiny.cc/3kuuW
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