former reagan economic adviser bruce babbitt, bartlett, former reagan economic adviser bruce bartlett says the republican tax giveaway to the rich and famous will, "do nothing whatsoever to increase employment and should not be taken seriously." the "wall street journal," their good friend, call it is a gimmick and a ploy saying their proposal would lead to misinvestment and other economic distortions. and the u.s. conference of bishops says the republican budget doesn't meet their moral criteria. they say in their statement, government and other institutions have a shared responsibility to promote the common good of all especially ordinary workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in economic and -- and difficult economic times. and just solutions, however, must require shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues. on tuesday, the republicans voted to deem and pass their budget, the same budget that the bishops have said doesn't meet moral criteria. to end the medicare guarantee, making seniors pay more to get less so they can give a tax cut of nearly $400,

it all documented so would you please and october 4th, 2011, very interesting op ed written by bruce bartlett, he held senior policy roles and served on the staffs of jamp camp and ron paul. so it's really interesting and i'm going to put it in and here's the opening. republicans have a problem. people are increasingly concerned about unemployment but republicans have nothing to offer them. the gop opposes additional spending and a fact favor big cuts in spending and likely lead to further layoffs and concludes by saying, in my opinion, regulatory uncertainty is a canard invented by republicans supported by the business community year in and year out. it's a case of political opportunism. obviously, senator sessions and inhofe would disagree with this. and i think it was interesting. i think a very important poll -- i believe you when you tell me people come up to you and tell you. i wrote what you said, the impact on our lives from the epa is nothing that they have ever seen before. that they've ever seen before. that's basically what you said. and i totally agree with you, that that happene

attracted to the notion which has been advanced by john shownen of stanford, i'm reading a book by bruce bartlett and that's time medicare financing to a sales tax. it would automatically discipline or at least have some discipline on medicare spending and it would be a way to finance medicare spending. i don't know where that wouldnd up as a percentage of gdp, i would sleep safer at night we were going to finally deal with this deficit and -- >> a revolution in health care -- today you can get your dna sequenced for less than $500. if you're so brave, can you put that up on a social network and have really smart people run algorithms against it and give you a prediction of where you're most likely encounter disease. the amount of money in silicon valley -- what i'm seeing is health and at the seed level right now is health infomatics will have a dramatic effect. that's a thought but i thought i would throw that out there. >> ellen cough man is coming out with a report on just that. >> cameron and bob, if you were the czar, where would you -- >> this is a forbes conference. steve forbes isn't her

first and ask questions later or in other words it's the definition of a budget based strategy bruce bartlett a supply side economists and fiscal times columnist blasted ryan's budget for life in crucial details he said that the plan doesn't say what tax expenditures would be cut and what ryan's new tax brackets would look like he also glass of the congressman saying befalling he said i think ryan has an undeserved reputation for seriousness and budget matters but word fantasy would better apply in my opinion the ryan budget should be seen as nothing more than a p.r. document for republicans so they can say they have a plan to balance the budget cut taxes and cure the common cold i wish i could buy some of the stuff these guys are drinking or smoking now that's a pretty harsh criticism especially considering the fiscal times are to me comes under fire from liberals but an arguably more serious problem with ryan's budget is that well it's better list on the back of average americans it would cut three hundred eighty nine billion dollars from medicare seven hundred thirty five from medicaid and

first off, i want to say i know bruce bartlett. had a chance to work with bruce bartlett when i worked for the national center of policy and analysis. mr. bartlett was a regular contributor, not just for the ncpa, but of economic terms. i completely agree with mr. bartlett that there are many out there who have successful businesses. our point is we want them all to grow. successful business is able to hire new people. unsuccessful businesses struggle and cannot provide not only an increase in the amount of pay but also the benefit issue becomes difficult. so we want people to be successful, and i think mr. bartlett is correct. it's a wide swath. i want small business because of the size, not because of how successful they are, to be able to employ more people and that's what republicans are trying to do. guilty as charged. mr. hastings: then i ask my friend first to just listen and then i will ask yet another question. mr. bartlett also said this, he said the republican tax plan will do nothing whatsoever to increase employment. i

and so what did bruce bartlett say? and i quote, it will do nothing whatsoever to increase employment, point number one. this is not a jobs bill, it will not grow the economy, it will not do what all of us think needs to be done. and they went on to say, it is nothing more than an election year giveaway to a favored republican constituency. a political gimmick, a tax gimmick that will cost us $46 billion over this year alone and $460 billion, let me say, round that to a half a trillion, as inflation puts us -- pushes it up, a half a trillion-dollar hole adding to the budget deficit that cronlts this country, that all american -- confronts this country, that all americans know we must address. my colleagues, it takes no courage to vote for this bill. what takes courage is to pay for things. what takes courage is to say, we have an obligation. what took courage was to make sure that we paid our debts, we didn't do it so what happened? wea almost took this country to the brink -- we almost took this country to the brink of

nonpartisan committee says the impact is so small, so minuscule as to be incalculable, it's also why bruce bartlett, former economic adviser to president reagan said it would do nothing for the economy. what does it do? it adds $50 billion to our national debt, produces no positive economic growth, only gives this windfall to people who don't have to create any jobs. it makes absolutely no sense. >> all right. senator hutchison, what's your reaction to mr. van hollen? and senator, i want to add one point. look, i like most tax cuts, but this one's only one year and it only covers companies of 500 employees or less, that's a little bit gimmicky as the "wall street journal" pointed out this morning. >> well, larry, all of us would rather see real tax reform. we would rather see the corporate rate lowered in general, we want to try to protect the individual tax cuts as we can. but i think anything we can do to help small business keep their head above water with the regulations that are being thrown at them by this administration with the constant talk of increasing taxes on our job creators. and with

bartlett. they added a big swap into montgomery county in the mix in hopes of diluting the republican vote. brucehan is trying to figure out who is more fired up for november. bruce. >> reporter: yes, anita. that is the big question. are the democrats in montgomery county fired up enough to counter the republican enthusiasm out here in western maryland, the western marylands who have been sending roscoe bartlett to congress for decades turn out over all dismal in this primarily. but i want you to look at how many more republicans have voted so far. if you add up all of of the votes for all of the republican candidates there were a bunch of them. and assume all of the voters are going to turn out in november. the gop is going to win this thing big. 28,490 republicans have been counted and voted so far. the democrats 20,207. that conventional wisdom has it that republicans are more consistent primary voters. but, of course, president obama is going to be on the ballot in november. both parties likely to fight here very hard in maryland sixth congressional district. so maybe we're right back where w