Daily Topics - Thursday October 17th, 2013
By shawnt56
Catch The Thom Hartmann Program LIVE 3-6pm ET M-F!!
Watch the video 'Last Hours' narrated by Thom Hartmann about the "time bomb" that is ticking underground, underwater and under ice… frozen methane that is now escaping and could trigger runaway climate change. www.lasthours.org
Hour One: How the "know nothing" press extended the shutdown / Plus, Everything You Know is Wrong...about the # 12? William Gladstone, The Power of Twelve
Hour Two: What madness lurks in the Tea Party brain? Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio / Plus, the debt deal winners & sore losers... Professor Peter Morici, Newsmax
Hour Three: Geeky Science - where would we be without plants?
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
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At Mondragon - both the mountain and the cooperative city - in Spain (written about in "Threshold" book)
Thom & Louise at a "private audience" with His Holiness Pope John Paul II at his summer palace, Castle Gandolfo, Italy
With His Holiness The Dalai Lama, at His home in Dharamsala, India (Synthesis Dialogues - made into a movie narrated by Harrison Ford)
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Thom, et al:
First time on your blog, and responding to on-air request by Thom on behalf of a caller - not sure how this works.
However, here are links for the caller at ~1:40 PM (PDT) today, 10/17/13, who asked for sources the describe the Obama Administration's deficits by FY:
(1) From ~11/21/12 - so not up to date - this is my favorite demonstration of Obama's shrinking deficits. Rachel Maddow has a typically superb presentation with two bar charts in "Your helpful Thanksgiving charts about the deficit" at
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/21/15343715-your-helpful-thank...
and she says, in part: "...here are the charts that show the U.S. deficit is not growing but shrinking -- in fact, it's shrinking faster than at any time since the end of War II..." You'll see two bar charts. If you check the numbers in the first chart, you'll see that the deficit has gone down sequentially (monotone function) every year for the past three years.
-- I urge the caller to view this, and then search for a similar one that runs up through FY 2013. In general, of course, the caller should do a search, starting with the least specific search term, like "obama deficit", and narrow to a more specific search, if necessary. Also, several of the following sources are from ~12/12 - they were used in research for an article that I wrote at that time. At worst, they'll spur the caller to find something related, but newer. So, here are a few other sources that I've used:
(2) "The Deficit Is Plunging! And Nobody Cares!", by Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, 9/17/13, at
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/deficit-plunging-nobody-cares-142800771.html
(3) "Deep Impact: The Federal Deficit" from FactCheck.org at
http://www.factcheck.org/2012/09/obamas-deficit-dodge/
(4) "Who Really Caused The Deficit? (CHART)" at
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/obama-romney-deficit-debt-cha....
which says, in part, "Under Obama’s watch the national debt has risen from roughly $10 trillion to $15 trillion, a record high. But to what extent are his decisions while in office to blame? The answer: very little. The vast bulk of the debt is the result of policies enacted during the Bush administration coupled with automatic increases in federal spending and decreases in tax revenue triggered by the economic downturn." (5) "Ending the Deficit Blame Game" at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-22/ending-the-deficit-blame-game.html. Bloomberg's conclusion: "...It's time for lawmakers to stop fighting about what caused the deficit and actually take steps to boost the economy in the short-run while preventing it from collapsing in the long-term." "...the only chance America has to begin returning to constitutionally limited government and start righting our national economy..." is for our Congress to can the nonproductive rhetoric, and start earning their pay by fixing the deficit mess using the best economic measures that they can agree on. (6) "Could Obama's Deficit-Reduction Plan Get Any More Centrist?", by Matthew O'Brien, The Atlantic, 3/13/13, at http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/03/could-obamas-deficit-reduction-plan-get-any-more-centrist/273994/ From a big fan who's listening to KBCY in Seattle: Best regards,John V. Ryan, PEjohnrysf@yahoo.com