Photo, left: Patriot missile battery, Germany.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior advisor; & Cumulus Media radio
Hour One
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 1, Block A: Stephen Moore, chief economist, Heritage Foundation, in re: Ted Cruz's candidacy offers tax reform, end of Obamacare, saving $500bil PA for the next six or seven years.  Sen Mike Enzi of Wyoming: no offshore, off-budget defense accounts; 60-voote rule on the resolution.  We spend a half-trillion dollars a year on the military; we can cut this somewhere a little bit.  Nine billion in green-energy programs in the Pentagon; what's that doing there? Obama says: "I'll give you $70 bil extra in defense spending if you give me $70 bil for domestic spending."  He doesn’t own the money; and the budget is out of control.  The number-one priority of he federal govt is to provide for the common defense, not local boondoggles.   A lot of our troops don’t even get thee meals a day!  A governor who’s prospective son-on-law is a Navy SEAL who can get no more than one-and-a-half meals a day, has lost twenty pounds. 
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 1, Block B: Stephen Moore, chief economist, Heritage Foundation, in re: The theme of the Dems today is pure class-warfare and income-redistribution. GOP needs to respond with pro-growth and tax reform, e.g., flat tax.  Obama will wind up with fewer jobs and more offshored [money]. Obama's policies are all punitive against any person or entity with a somewhat larger income. Hyperobsessed with punishing rich people; it's all Robin Hood.  . . .  but the investor class is 401Ks, retirement fund, money-market funds – that's the middle class.  pres Obama is talking "middle-class economics" – what's he done for he middle class?  Avg middle-class income has fallen by $1,500 during his tenure.
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 1, Block C: Joseph Rago, WSJ editorial board & Pulitzer Prizewinner, in re: Five years down the road, the sloppiness of the Affordable Care Act, against which the Supreme Court probably will rule. What next?  King vs Burwell – have had oral arguments; decision to come in late June. What will happen if the plaintiffs, the States, who challenge the phrasing – the 37 states that did not set up an exchange – find that the fed subsidies for those states go away?  We've had modern insurance markets since WWII without the ACA.   You’d see some shocks at first but not a catastrophe initially: without the subsides people are exposed to the full costs of the regulations.  GOP should get ahead of the curve and promise to provide bridge financing. GOP plans will subsidize via tax deductions or credits up to about $40K or $50K.  After five years, we've insured more people; not as many as advertised. Many insurance plans were cancelled.  Added mostly a lot of people to Medicaid.  It remains deeply unpopular across most of the American population, This probably will be litigated for many years to come.  Compared to what we expected in 2010, It's much worse; but compared to 2014 [when a lot of problems had become evident], not as bad.   People are discovering that it’s a dog. 
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 1, Block D: David R. Henderson, Hoover, in re: Double taxation: you pay tax on your salary; then if you invest it in bonds or stocks, you pay a large tax a second time.  Rubio-Lee removes this, Designed on purpose to diminish income to feds.  However, a very high tax credit: $4K as a couple plus $2,500 for each child; bad for families that have few or no children.  Kiddie tax credit will cost $2 trillion.   Also, debt-interest no longer would be tax-deductible. An 18% regressive tax can be countervailed by having no tax up to $50K.  Or $2K per child.  Report that 27% of federal taxes are misallocated or poured into fraud. The business side of the Rubio-Lee bill is great; the personal side is not.
Hour Two
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 2, Block A: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re:  $75mil of nonlethal iad ot Ukraine now superseded by vote to provide highly lethal aid.  Meanwhile, Putin running a series f Arctic drills n preparation for war between Russia and NATO.  Templeton funds negotiating for reduction of obligations.  Also $40 bil IMF pkg for Kiev, of which one-third is private-sector.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/mar/24/putin-reviews-war-games-says-... ;    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/business/dealbook/ukraine-tells-bondholders-to-expect-some-losses.html
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 2, Block B: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; in re:
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 2, Block C: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; in re:
There is no Europe without Russia and no Russia without Europe
 
http://www.russia-direct.org/qa/there-no-europe-without-russia-and-no-ru...
 
Walter Schwimmer:
WHAT CAN BE APPLIED TO EUROPE CANNOT NECESSARILY BE APPLICABLE TO RUSSIA
 Maybe the expectations after the collapse of the USSR were too high on one hand, and maybe they were also wrong. What can be applied to Europe cannot necessarily be applicable to Russia, namely to have a very certain kind of model of democracy. 
 
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the majority of the Europeans did not consider that Russia has to find its own way, and did not take into account that the development of democracy in Western European countries was a long one and a difficult one. 
In my view, the main shortcoming of Russian democracy is the absence of real grassroots parties. It will take time and it will come, I am sure. A growing middle class will develop such a political movement or change the existing into the grassroots movement.
But there is not anymore a question of Russia being part of Europe or turning to Asia – you can do both.
RD: Yes, but that is exactly the problem. Nowadays the West claims that Russia violates European principles and values and, hence, it cannot be a part of the European family by acting as it acts.
W.S.: I would not underline that. As the most recent example, the declaration of Minsk signed on Feb. 12 by four leaders, [French President François] Hollande, [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, confirms that the leaders remain committed to the vision of a joint humanitarian and economic space from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And I am convinced that there is no Europe without Russia and no Russia without Europe. So, why not to find a common ground for cooperation between the new Eurasian Union and the European Union?
RD: There are certain reasons why this cooperation is not feasible now.
W.S.: Why not? First of all I see the Eurasian Union as built on the example of the EU. Why reinvent the wheel? Many parts of acquis communautaire of the EU can be taken over by the Eurasian Union and then you can build a common market
 
RD: Like many experts and analysts are saying that the U.S. does not have a strategy as well?
W.S.:
I THINK THE U.S. HAS A VERY CLEAR GOAL – TO KEEP RUSSIA AS WEAK AS POSSIBLE.
No, they have. I think the U.S. has a very clear goal – to keep Russia as weak as possible.
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 2, Block D: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; in re:
Hour Three
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 3, Block A: Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review & Pirates fan, in re: Dodging raindrops and balancing bottled water and a bunch of power bars under one arm, a young man returned to his car at a Sheetz gas pump along old U.S. 40 in this western Maryland town, sandwiched between Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The local public radio station blared through the open car door, reporting on the letter to Iran from 47 Senate Republicans. Adjusting his seat, he said to a traveling companion: “Good for them.”
“Wait, who?” his friend asked.
“The guys who sent the letter to Iran, that Cotton guy,” he replied. “For all we know, the president will issue an executive order and give Iran whatever they want.”
Then he shut the car's door and drove east toward the U.S. 522 overpass.
An Obama-Biden sticker was plastered to his rear bumper.
The “Cotton guy” that the 20-something referred to is Arkansas . . . Click here for link
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 3, Block B:  Joshua Green, Bloomberg, in re: RUN, ELIZABETH, RUN  Warren would be a credible threat to Clinton and therefore good for Democrats.  Although she took her time doing it, Elizabeth Warren seems finally to have convinced the panting obsessives of the Washington press corps that she isn’t going to run for president next year. That’s not just a loss for campaign reporters itching for a competitive primary race. It’s a big loss for Democrats, too, because having Warren in the field would have a number of salutary effects.
It would vastly increase interest in the Democratic primaries, which would get more people invested in a candidate early on and make them more likely to vote next November. As things stand now, reporters routinely refer to Hillary Clinton as the “likely” or “presumptive” Democratic presidential nominee. Why would anyone tune in for a year-long coronation?
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 3, Block C: Michael Ledeen, FDD, in re:  http://pjmedia.com/michaelledeen/2015/03/22/jeffrey-goldbergs-disinformation-on-antisemitism/
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 3, Block D: Sohrab Amari, WSJ London, WSJ EDITORIAL, in re:  Iran’s Coming Leadership Crisis   Negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 powers led by the U.S. are racing against a March 31 deadline to conclude a nuclear deal in Lausanne, Switzerland. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on Saturday that negotiators had made “genuine progress” but that “important gaps remain.”  Yet what happens if the Iranian leadership that the U.S. and others are dealing with now is not in place to implement any agreement? Two recent developments suggest that the Islamic Republic may be heading toward one of its cyclical spasms of intense factional competition. The outcome could derail any deal, or leave the West committed to an agreement that is even less verifiable or useful than it might be today. There is scant evidence that the Obama administration is taking this into account.
Hour Four
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 4, Block A: Ann Marlowe, Hudson, in re: Libya instability is 'security threat' to UK, say MPs  Libya's collapse since the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi has turned it into a potential security ...   US ambassador to Libya harassed off Twitter after unverified air strike post    Libya Dawn plane shot down by forces loyal to Tobruk - Al Jazeera English
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 4, Block B:  JohnTamny, Forbes.com, in re: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntamny/2015/03/22/why-college-football-players-should-be-encouraged-to-major-in-football/
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 4, Block C:  Larry Diamond, Hoover, in re:  http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/03/tunisia-is-still-a-success-terrorist-attack/388436/
Tuesday 24 March 2015  /  Hour 4, Block D:   Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Russian tourism flights to resume in 2018  The competition heats up: Faced with the loss of income from NASA in 2017, when private commercial ferries take over the job of bringing Americans to ISS, Russian officials today revealed that they plan to resume launching tourists to the station in 2018.
The problem the Russians will have then is that they'll have competition from the American companies, who will likely be able to compete in price with them, and will be easier to work with.
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