Income Redistribution: Basic Fairness or 'Class Warfare?'

Making News

Obama Lifts Restrictions on Federally Funded Stem-Cell Research ()

One of the hallmarks of the last administration was the restriction on human embryonic stem-cell research. Today, as he promised in last year’s campaign, President Obama lifted the Bush restrictions, although he said that, as a person of faith, he understood them. Jeffrey Young covers healthcare for The Hill.

Guests:

• Jeffrey Young: Healthcare Reporter, The Hill

Main Topic

Income Redistribution: Basic Fairness or 'Class Warfare?' ()

The gap between rich and poor has been growing fast. The Bush tax cuts give $20 a year to the bottom fifth of wage earners and $118,000 to millionaires. President Obama’s stimulus package already passed and signed into law provides tax credits for 95 percent of American workers. The Obama budget says wealth is not “trickling down” and that raising taxes on the top three million families will help “economic opportunity to trickle up.” Republicans call that “class warfare.” We hear a debate and look at other factors that cause economic dislocation, including technology, changes in the work force and increased anxiety.

Guests:

• Roberton 'Bob' Williams: Principal Research Associate, Tax Policy Center
• Amity Shlaes: Syndicated Columnist, Bloomberg
• Daniel Gross: Economic Columnist, Newsweek and Slate
• Dalton Conley: Chairman of the Sociology Department, New York University

Links:

• Tax Stimulus Report Card (Conference Bill), Center for Tax Policy on
• Gross' article on Obama's 'war on the rich'
• Gross' 'Dumb Money: How Our Greatest Financial Minds Bankrupted the Nation'
• Steiger Amendment, Time Magazine on
• Congressional Budget Office on impact of Investment Recovery and Reinvestment Act
• Shlaes' 'The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression'
• Conley's 'Elsewhere, USA: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms and Economic Anxiety'

Reporter's Notebook

America's Military Still Gearing Up for Cold War in 2009 ()

The Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress, says 95 ongoing major defense programs exceed their budgets by a total of $295 billion taxpayer dollars. Last week, President Obama issued a memorandum to all agencies and departments on fiscal responsibility. At a press conference, he singled out the defense lobby. He has picked a fight that won’t be easy to win? Winslow Wheeler, who worked for both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, is Director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information.

Guests:

• Winslow Wheeler: Director of the Straus Military Reform Project, Center for Defense Information

Links:

• 'America’s Defense Meltdown: Pentagon Reform for the New President and Congress,' edited by Winslow Wheeler
• William Hartung (New America Foundation) on the Pentagon's unwanted projects in earmarks
• GAO report on Defense acquisitions