I'm late to the game. But here's what I heard from todays show.

Trey Radel - says economic freedom is what this Nation is and should always be about.

Agree! Its simply the manner in which it manifests that creates the enmity across the aisles and chokes many independents.

current GOP definition. Economic freedom = letting Corps rape and pillage as they wish - with no consequences.

For the rest of us it means where rules and regs are applied, vigorously and the bottom lines of any particular Corp, or their CEO's is not a factor.

Edward from Washington Heights.

What you stated is NOT TRUE if you live near the equator. Moreover, I hope you understand that the "climate change" referenced is the long term phenomenon due to green house gases keeping more infrared in our atmosphere.

Joe from nearby ~

I think it's the cotton mouth from the crystal meth...

hjs11211 -- Sorry about the misunderstanding. My snark-o-meter was set on low.

Rich_P, Peg,

In case you haven't noticed, the climate is ALWAYS changing due to the Sun and the Earths Axial tilt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_tilt

@ Bob from Brooklyn. I believe it should be a state issue. $9 an hour is more than enough in some areas on the US. If it's not in others, than those states should take action to raise their minimum wages. For example, Tulsa, OK is listed as being one of lowest cost of living areas in the US. An apt can be $400 vs the previously stated $3400 in Manhattan.

Personally, if I couldn't afford to stay in the area I was born, I'd move. Being financially responsible is more important to me.

dyob, you backward boy, go play in the streets, during rush hour.

@Peg, Notwithstanding your valiant efforts, you can't reason with an ideologue. Climate change, as real as it is, will always be mocked by those who are willfully ignorant.

Tony from Canarsie
thx, 1) i wasn't talking about the poor. i was talking about the rich. 2)that's why i put “death panels” in "s??!

Ed The Climate Idiot

Peg the climate is ALWAYS changing.

A hurricane hit Long Island in 1938.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_York_hurricanes

1. I did not vote for Pes. Obama. However, he is the president and deserves respect. Whatever the man says and does receives negative comments from the media. "The Inaugural Address was too general not specific", "The State of the Union Address was a laundry list of too many things". According to the media, he never gets it right.

2. The elephant in the room when it comes to health care, and medicare is the "insurance-industrial complex". These insurance companies make millions and billions of dollars. But nobody talks about this seriously.

3. If you believe we need to cut government spending, start with the "perks" enjoyed by our Congress. Great health care, and full salary retirement pensions after serving just one two-year term in Congress.

4. If you want to stop wars, institute a draft where Congresspersons children are not exempted, but are drafted into military service. There will be no more wars!

There, I got these things off my chest. Continue your great reporting, and good luck Mr.Lehrer. (I saw you when you spoke in Briarcliff Manor. )

I like president Obana I believe he's a real natural born king but nevertheless I know that he has to obey the corporation owners that control America so at the end w.e speech Mr Obama makes has only consequences for the ppl who own a piece in the monopoly board..wich now has a cat.
I just hope for my sake the government makes it easyr to file my incometax, I work harder than a dog and I really don't have nothing to show for it and I'm not those who flies to straight to the beat of this government or laws of men I have lost faith in everything because I'm so tired of the one percent beating me with a sledgehammer ...Jesus was right..those who have will have even more and those whk have nothing can only hope and spire because everything will be taken from them ..this is where I'm at now...I'm just so tired of the retic and promises promises..kiss their ring cuz their marvelous..-_-

@ Edward from Washington Heights AKA pretentious Hudson Heights

Chicken Little has decided to change her name. Big Canary in the Coalmine agrees that in the past, threats of the "sky is falling" were incorrect.

However, just because the little chick got it wrong in the past, does not mean this will always be the case. The evidence for Climate Change is overwhelming.

@ Brian from Manhattan: I agree with you on the regressive nature of social security and medicare funding, but want to clarify some of the details. FICA is the tax for social security, not medicare, and currently imposed on the first $113,700 of gross wages up to $113,700 at the rate of 6.2. There is a separate tax for medicare at the rate of 1.45%, imposed on gross wages with no maximum cap.

Lets talk about how BO has promised to sell the American landscape to the dangerous and unregulated Oil & Gas industry. And for what? To pay for likely worthless re-education programs for tech? On the assumption that this will create jobs?!

Also lets talk about how women will be excluded from the 50 billion for roads and bridges and that he is not suggesting re-education for this field. The reality is that this money will go to Chinese companies and a handful of National Firms that will move jobs through States and EXUBERANT costs to tax-payers! Look at the BQE, they've been working on it for 50 years, billions of dollars later, it still sucks!

hjs11211 -- 1) "In Britain, although there is government health insurance, people can also buy private health insurance."

Most people who are or will be effected by the Affordable Care Act can't even afford BASIC health care now.

2) "Why can’t elders buy extra insurance if they want it, in order to go around the 'death panels'?"

Because there is no such thing as death panels?

The caller who mentioned that Single Payer medical insurance would make Medicare far more affordable was quickly dismissed by Bryan Lehrer without his even acknowledging that this viewpoint has been missing, excluded from so much of the discussion. People like me have not forgotten or given up on Single Payer because it remains the most progressive way to cap inflated costs and reform the healthcare system.

My impression watching Rubio was that he is too STUPID to even understand the most rudimentary points from his hollow, regurgitated party talking points.

He's clearly moved into his position by the classic, smoozie, political-hack, back-slapping BS.

Hollow and pitiful.

Same Speech Different Day.

I hope you are all ready for another 4 years of the same.

What's the deal with Marco Rubio guzzling water in the middle of his response?

Or was that just 'product placement'?

Brian, please invite Rand Paul for a interview.

To the caller, Marty, who is looking for a moral rational to explain "gyping"
high earners out of the Medicare benefits they had been forced to contribute to, "It's a requirement of the Government. Notwithstanding their assurances, the programs that were established for politicians to to be re-elected on could never be sold at an acceptable price. Now, as "unpayable" bills become due, it's time for the promised benefits to be curtailed. It is always thus.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/021213-644231-obamacare-a-cruel-fraud-and-legislative-wreck.htm?ref=SeeAlso

RE: Brian from Manhattan's assertion re: FICA tax cap for Medicare... the $113K cap only applies to Social Security payroll tax, and not Medicare. There is no FICA tax cap for Medicare.

It used to be called "Global Warming".

Now it's called "Climate Change".

Chicken Little and those who proclaim It's the End of the World have always been part of the fringe elements of society.

In Britain, although there is government health insurance, people can also buy private health insurance.
Why can’t elders buy extra insurance if they want it, in order to go around the “death panels”?

To clarify what the "means-testing of Medicare" is all about,... I believe what is being proposed is to expand on moves already made in Medicare recently to require higher-income beneficiaries to pay higher premiums for Part B (major medical) and Part D (drug) parts of the program ...and perhaps introduce a new variation on that in having a sliding scale for out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-payments, and co-insurance for Parts A (hospitalization), B and D. It has nothing to do with whether or not rules will be changed re: eligibility or what costs will be charged for services. As for Part A, there is no premium for that in that current workers' pay for that via payroll taxes to provide benefits for current beneficiaries, so that shouldn't be affected, unless Medicare's program structure is revamped as the Bowles-Simpson commission hinted at.

Sarah from Brooklyn: well said.

Brian, your recent comment on Medicare means testing was incorrect. The current tax for Medicare (FICA) is NOT a progressive tax. It is a Regressive tax. It hits the poor and middle class harder than the rich. Currently, once a person makes more than $113k or so in income, that person ceases to pay the FICA tax.

This is the reason some think that well off seniors should get fewer benefits for medicare and social security, a.k.a. the means testing argument. As a portion of their income they ceased paying FICA taxes on the totality of their income and so should obtain fewer benefits when they are eligible (so long as they are capable of paying that extra amount due to their income).

We already have means testing for Medicare. I believe it began in 2006/2007. The government has
the "right" to go into our untaxable income and add it to the taxable amount we pay.

Brian, the payroll tax has a cap, so millionaires & billionaires pay no more than people earning $110,000/yr. That does also limit their payout, but they aren't paying more after they reach that cap--in total payroll tax, not just the rate they're taxed at, which is actually lower the more they make as a salary.

Uhmmm, WHEN DO WE GET KORPORATE® $$$ OUT of politics?!?!?

No one mentioned this, last night.

Medicare is already means tested. I am self employed, and my medicare premium (I am over 65) varies with my income.

I believe that Rubio and Obama were talking about different issues concerning college education. It sounded like Rubio was supporting online universities that are taking up a lot of Federal Aid money and not equipping its graduates with jobs and, like Obama put it, not giving the students "enough bang for their buck" but instead mounting debt.Obama was suggesting a reform of those kinds of for-profit institutions and the governmental aid that it gets and it would be great if those issues get a little bit more of a spotlight and explanation.

What is means testing - income? savings? For instance, if I'm a renter and therefore have savings would I be penalized compared to if I spent that money and bought a house?

@ Kat - So Kat. What you're saying is if you're born in NYC and you can't afford to live here, you must leave your hometown? How much sense does that make?

Rubio's ramblings consisted mostly of defending his party against what he repeatedly called the president's "attacks" on them. Somebody needs to tell him that the election already happened and that the president won.

A little fact checking, PLEASE!!

"ObamaCare®" is reducing the cost of healthcare??

By WHAT metric??

RE Martin: Go ahead and stick your head in the sand. The evidence for Global Warming is overwhelming.

Do we all have to wait till the last Republican finally decides it's real before we act?

Rubin Navrette questions whether "who you love" was an appropriate category in economic development.Declared or perceived gender/orientation is a group of citizens who can legally be fired or denied a job, denied a place to live or to eat in a restaurant or sit on a bus or park IN TWENTY NINE STATES. It is surely an economic--as well-as morale and justice --issue.

Raising the minimium wage would be nation wide. There are many other places in the US where $9 an hour will take you to middle class. If you choose to live in an area where the cost of living is higher, that's your choice.

Rubio is obviously unaware of programs like the Empire State College here in NYS. Work experience accepted, multi-campus, degrees from undergraduate through graduate.

The current caller should also know that Medicare insurance payments continue as you are on Medicare. At the lowest income level currently, SocSec repcipients have approx $1300/year deducted from their benefits for Medicare Premiums alone!

It's a little discouraging that hyperbole is embraced and facts are anathema to Rubio. Someone here referred to him as the new Republican tool. I concur.

After watching the response last night, i have a couple questions about Marco Rubio:

1) doors this guy know anything besides talking points?
2) is he a real person?
3) can ANYBODY become a senator?

Is there a difference in political positions held by Cuban hispanics vs Hispanics from other countries. Cubans get a "free pass" to citizenship if they arrive on US soil. The rest don't. How do they feel about that?

neil from Somerset County, NJ ~

Totally thought the same thing...

What a bunch of hollow, political hack BS!!

Did any networks even bother to broadcast Rand Paul's speech?

Did anyone, aside from those whose job it is to collect funny video clips for Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert's shows, even watch it?

I'm Latino, don't speak Spanish and subscribe to virtually NONE of Rubio's ideology. Rubio's Cuban roots are not going to establish his immigration stance bona fides.

"He dedicated 200 words to immigration" really, everyone "group" in America wants to be special. SMH

Medicare & SS are NOT "entitlements"!!

We PAY for these our entire lives!!

They are NOT "give-aways"!!

We are a service economy now. We are here to serve those higher up on the economic food chain. You're welcome to serve or die.

A republican from florida gushing about how much he loves NYC? Immediatly you know he's full of crap. Like all the crackers, he's scared s***less of NYC. Probably need a xanex just to make take the phone.

"Protecting my neighbors"?? Huh, so do you think Rubio is living in the hood? Who exactly are his neighbors? DO you think any immigrants live next door to him? Yeah, we KNOW you are protecting your neighbors!! Tool.

"Rubio was named Freshman of the Year by the Florida Petroleum Marketers Association."

Say no more.

I find it interesting that most of the MSM today are ignoring the president's proposed job programs. Not as sexy as guns, I suppose.

When is Brian Lehrer going to break the blockade, and allow the listeners to hear and talk with Senator Bernie Sanders? Someone has to counter this fellow, the Peterson spokesman, Leonhardt, about realities of the Social Security and Medicare Programs.

Let's start counting now....

"open to bring anyone into my tent" Ain't that the truth.

Brian
Push back at this guy, yes we should spend 70% on those programs.
Why do we have more weapons than all the other armies in the world ??
Why do we have bases in Japan, Germany etc. ??

Raise Taxes on the wealthy !!!

Did anyone fact check Rubio's speech? Same old false, tired Republican talking points, setting up false straw man arguments (for example, Obama blames the free enterprise system for the economic crisis; Obama's answer to everything is more government, Obama's so-called attack on the 2nd amendment, etc., etc.)

how can you dispute anything that Rand said...this guy on is a joke

Dear Mr. Clinton, s**t
It's gettin harder and harder for a motherf**ker
to make a dollar in these here streets
I mean s**t, I hear you screamin peace
But we can't find peace
til my little ni**az on these streets get a piece
I know you feel me cause you too near me not to hear me
So why don't you help a ni**a out?Sayin you cuttin welfare
That got us ni**az on the street, thinkin who in the hell care?
s**t, y'all want us to put down our glocks and our rocks
but y'all ain't ready to give us no motherf**kin dollars
What happened to our 40 acres and a mule fool?
We ain't stupid
Think you got us lookin to lose
Tryin to turn all us young ni**az into troops
You want us to fight your war
What the f**k I'm fightin for?
s**t, I ain't got no love here
I ain't had a check all year
Taxin, all the blacks and
police beatin me in the streets
f**k peace

"Budget our way to prosperity"...? The congressman apparently knows nothing about macroeconomics. Unlike a household's income, government spending is itself a part of GDP. If you cut gov't spending without an offsetting increase on the private side, your economy goes back in to recession.

Please make some real propositions!

He doesn’t sound like he has an open mind.
Aren’t Medicare & SS paid for by specific taxes?

Why does this representative, like so many republicans, promote the stark dichotomy between business and government when there's always been managed capitalism in this country? More reductionist comments do not promote cooperation.

Sorry, bad link there:

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/12/171719082/the-sticky-questions-surrounding-drones-and-kill-lists

Excellent speech as per normal.

Rubio the new republican TOOL!

This representative is another business whore, just like his buddy Rubio.

No mention in the SOTU about the president's secret hit list.

www.nytimes.com/.../obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?...

Hmm...wonder why not?

THIS SPEECH WAS LIKE THE MOVIE "GROUNDHOG DAY'.....

I'm gonna do in the 5th year the same thing that hasn't worked in the previous 4 years.

It's appropriate that it was made in February.

bifurcated and balkanized... she's so pompous.

$9/hr is NOT a "living" wage.

Pre tax - $1440/mth.

"The average rent in Manhattan is now at an all-time high of $3418 a month."

NY Times ~

If you don't get a degree, you can get a $9 an hour job. If you pay $80k to go to college, you can get a $15 an hour job. The math doesn't add up. After loans, a college graduate could get paid less than a non-graduate.

This sort of reflexive, gullible Obama praise/defending is why I now give to Democray Now!, instead of The Nation.

Obama Unleashed! LOL! Keep waiting for that pony Katrina!

We definitely have an ownership society. The owners own you, sucka. Rack up that debt, wage slaves.

@Martin Chuzzlewit from Manhattan

"Then that means that from 1993 until 2001 Al-Qaeda was not a threat .... until it was."

Like the '98 attack on Nairobi embassy? The response for which the GOP accused Clinton of wagging the dog? Or the 2000 USS Cole attack that Dubya DID NOTHING about once the FBI pinned the attack to Al Qaeda.

Martin - you are a waste of time who sees only what he wants to. There's no reason in responding to your nonsense.

Make more sense or take a cue from the MIA 'listener' and post less often.

This is either a deliberate obfuscation of the terrorist danger … or a pathetic misunderstanding of how modern terrorism works.

Question: I bet if the President declared a minmum wage of $25.00 fused with the elimination of some safety net programs for the able bodied (food stamps, wic etc.) you'd have some republicans on board...
Doesn't that spell ownership society?

another silly cloying segment. Hey Anwar Al Alaki's son gets no vote
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/robert-gibbs-anwar-al-awlaki_n_2012438.html

Rubio!! Really...???

That's the BEST the GOP has??

They're in worse shape than we thought.

Who can live on $9 / hr!? That is such a ridiculous statement. Why not give workers a chance to make a decent living - Like not allowing companies such as Walmart to continue to profit from denying their workers basic human rights.

With his refrain, "they deserve a vote," President Obama has really taken the Republicans, with their endless filibusters and voter suppression laws, to task. He comes across as the defender of democracy itself.

WAIT!!

Didn't we "cover" the SOTU, yesterday??

Sheldon from Brooklyn ~

...some might argue; A silk purse out of a a rather LARGE sow's ear.

Rubio - P A T H E T I C

Didn't see it, don't care he'll probably not do most of what he said he wants to do. I never held it agains Michelle when she said something like she was ashamed to be an American but right now I am ashamed to be an American. But I paid into the system all my life and I want and I want what Im entitled to. So if any of y"all feel like telling me to leave, you can forget that. Everything else I might want to tell you I can't write it here, they wouldn't allow it. But it's something to the effect of get bent. obama always sounds good and know how to arouse a crowd then, pssssst LET DOWNNNNNNNNNN!

Bob ~

I believe you're on to sumthin'!

...why, "Matin"!

"Obfuscation", that's an awfully big word!

If you don't support a higher minimum wage, then you're an @sshole.

“We can say with confidence that America will achieve our objective of defeating the core of al-Qaeda.”
“(It) is a shadow of its former self.”

LOL, Barry, they look pretty robust to me.
Tell that to the Egyptians in the Sinai, Algerians, Malians, Yemenis, Somalians, Libyans and, now Syrians.

And tell that to the family of Ambassador Stevens.

@ Chuzzlewit
Just because they had Dr. Hoerling on doesn't mean they support his position. They actually speak to people on both sides of debates most of the time. You must be confused because Fox "News" never gives real time to opposing points of view.

And regarding "“We will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to Americans.” I'm not sure how you interpret that to mean that we'll sit around until attacked.

BEST LINE OF THE NIGHT-

“Economic growth is the best way to help the middle class. Unfortunately, our economy actually shrank during the last three months of 2012. But if we can get the economy to grow at just 4 percent a year, it would create millions of middle-class jobs.”

Unfortunately, it WAS made by Marco Rubio.
Not the “B” actor we are stuck with for 1436 more days.

Stop Thomas, you speak too much sense. Rubio ____________ (sorry, I had to go get a sip of water,) will probably spend the rest of his life getting a govt check, whilst criticizing the existence of that very government.

Rubio is the GOP's lipstick on a pig.

“We will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to Americans.”

Barry suggests that Al-Qaeda is not a threat unless they are actively engaging America at any given moment. Then that means that from 1993 until 2001 Al-Qaeda was not a threat .... until it was.

This is either a deliberate obfuscation of the terrorist danger … or a pathetic misunderstanding of how modern terrorism works.

Marco Rubio's reaction was interesting, especially the bit about government. It was implied that government holds everyone back and we don't need government. Miraculously it didn't hold Rubio back. He got government help to finish college, Medicare paid for his father's treatment and is paying for his mother's, last but not least US government made it possible for the Rubio family to settle in America in the first place and didn't HOLD THEM BACK in the old Cuban regime.

Obama claimed last night that climate change caused Sandy. (“We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy was just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science.”)

But National Public Radio (NPR) told me otherwise!!
LOL……whom should I believe????!!!!!

Dr. Martin Hoerling of the National Oceanic and Atmosopheric Administration said in an NPR interview in October 2012---
SIEGEL: But hurricanes?
HOERLING: No.
SIEGEL: There is no correlation, you're saying.
HOERLING: No, there isn't. There's no - let me say this way, there is really low confidence that climate change has affected the frequency or intensity, or tracks of these disturbances.”

GUFFAW ... no wonder Obama is ashamed to show us his grades and courses taken.