Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20171130

Draws International Outrage after he we treat death Retweets Retweets britain first, a far right antiimmigrant hate group, whose leader has been convicted of religious harassment charges, just picked up for hate speech. Trump was condemned by british Prime Minister theresa may and the london mayor, among others. We will get response from al jazeera. Then the republican tax overhaul that would shower billions of dollars in tax cuts on the richest americans could go to vote as early as friday. This is the worst tax bill ive seen in my long life. It should not be called tax reform to read it actually complicates our tax structure and opens up new loopholes and gives advantage to precisely the groups that are already advantage. Amy we will speak with nobel prizewinning economist joseph stiglitz. His new book. Trump is unfit to be president. It is not just that he tweets all the time in ways that are really embarrassing to the country and he really does not understand and is not very interesteded in the details of Economic Policy. The prpresident should be a leader, not a cheerleader. Amy all that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Senate republicans have moved closer to passing a massive overhaul of the u. U. S. Tax code, which would slash funding for health care while showering billions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest americans. Tuesdays procedural step clears the way for a debate on the senate floor and a possible vote on the tax bill later this week. The plan would slash the Corporate Tax rate from 35 to 20 , and reduce individual tax rates though those changes would be temporary. The bill would also repeal the Affordable Care acts individual mandate. A different tax cut bill passed the house last week. We will have more on the republican tax plans later with nobel l prizewinning economist joseph stiglitz. President donald trump drew International Outrage tuesday after he retweeted three violent videos shared by a leader of a farright, antimuslim, eight hate group based in the u. K. The videos purport to show violence carried out by muslims. Before trump retweeted them, the videos were were posted early tuesday by jayda fransen, deputy leader of the Group Britain first. Fransen was arrested just days ago on hate speech charges over an appearance in belfast last august. She was previously found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment after she verbally accosted a muslim shopkeeper during a socalled christian patrol last year in the english town of luton. Trumps retweets drew condemnation across the political spectrum in britain. London mayor sadiq khan, who is muslim, said, President Trump yesterday used twitter to promote a vile, Extremist Group that exists solely to sow division and hatred in our country. Many brits who love america and americans will see this as a betrayal of the special relationship between our two countries. In a rare rebuke, conservative Prime Minister theresa may said, it is wrong for the president to have done this. But may did not rescind her governments invitation to host prident trump for a state visit. Two the videos retweeted by trump which were filmed in egypt and syria and presented without context, were titled, islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death and muslim destroys a statue of virgin mary. A third video titled muslim migrant beats up dutch boy on crutches shows one teenager kicking and punching another. Local media said the assailant was in fact born and raised in the netherlands. The Dutch Embassy condemned the tweeting of this video. At the white house, press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders was grilled by reporters over the videos. Look, again, whether it is a real video, the threat is real and that is what the president is talking about, that is what the president is focused on, dealing with those real threats and those are real matter how you look at it. [indiscernible] look, im not talking about the nature of the video. You are focused on the wrong thing. Amy in the u. S. , muslim groups were swift to condemn trumps retweets, which drew praise from trumps farright supporters. Louisiana politician a and formr ku klux klan leader david duke who tweeted, thank god for trump thats why we love him wewell have more on n trump islamomophobic tweets after headlines, with awardwinning british journalist and broadcaster mehdi hasan. More women have stepped forward to accuse nbc star matt lauer of sexual harassment, after nbc news said tuesday it has fired the longtime today show host. An investigation by the magazine variety found lauer once gave a sex toy to a colleague along with a note about how he wanted to use it on her. Variety also reports lauer exposed his genitals to a colleague and reprimanded her when she rejected his advances. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports one former nbcbc employe was summoned by lauer to his office in 2001. Lauer allegedly locked the door and sexually assauaulted her. Minnesota public radio has severed ties with garrison keillor, the former host of the popular radio show prairie home companion, over what the network called inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him. Mpr did not clarify what allegations keillor faces. In a statement to the minneapolis star tribune, keillor wrote, i put my hand on a womans bare back. I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. Keillor was fired less than a day after the Washington Post published his oped defending senator al franken of minnesota, whose political future is in doubt after four women said he had groped or inappropriately touched them. Keillors piece was headlined, al franken should resign . Thats absurd. National public radio Senior Editor David Sweeney has resigned amid allegations he sexually harassed at least three female npr journalists. Sweeneys exit comes just weeks after npr Senior Vice President for news Michael Oreskes resigned after several women say he kissed them without their consent and stuck his tongue in their mouths. Meanwhile, lawyers for john conyers say the 88yearold democratic congressmember will not step down amid multiple accusations of sexual harassment. The lawyers told the ap that conyers is innocent and will fight the allegations tooth and nail. Several women have accused conyers of stripping naked, making unwanted sexual overtures , and touching female staffers inappropriately. Last week , Buzzfeed News reported conyers settled a harassment complaint in 2015, paying out 27,000 to a woman who alleged she was fired after rejecting conyers sexual advances. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments tuesday in a case that could determine whether police can access cell phone phone location data without a warrant. The case, carpenter v. United states, involves a man who was convicted on burglary charges after police obtained more than 100 days of his cell phone records, which showed his smartphones gps tracking data placed him at the scene of several crimes. During oral arguments, justices appeared skeptical over the Trump Administrations claims that theres no reasonable expectation of privacy when an individual shares information with a third party. President trump has lashed out once more against kim jongun. In the latest insults to the north Korean Leader. Trump made the remarks on tuesday as he pitched his tax cut bill in a campaignstyle rally in st. Charles, missouri. President trump tremendous. These massive tax cuts will be rocket fuel [laughter] President Trump little rocket man. [laughter] President Trump rocket fuel for the american economy. [applause] President Trump he is a sick puppy. Amy his latest insults came as the administration promised to ratchet up sanctions against north korea over its test launch of a Ballistic Missile earlier this week. In somalia, an investigation by the website the daily beast provides new details on how u. S. Special forces and somali troops carried out a raid last august, in which 10 people were shot dead, including three children, in a village near the capital mogadishu. The investigation found that u. S. Soldiers fired onon unarmed civilians, relied onon shoddy intelligence, and ordered their somali counterparts to plant weapons by the bodies of the unarmed civilians they had just killed. The daily beast also reports that u. S. Diplomats pressured somalias government to bury the findings of its investigation into the killings. French president went macron in west africa for a threeday tour. He visited burkina faso, a nation formally colonized by france, where he promised to declassify documents related to the e assassinationon of the for leader dubbed africas che guevara, sasankara was killed n a military coup in 1987. At the International Criminal coururt in the hague, former Bosnian Croat military commander slobodan pralyak died tuesday after he drank a vial of poison inside the courtroom. Pralyak, whod been convicted to a 20year prison term for his role in the bosnian war of 1992 to 1995, rose to his feet just moments after a judge upheld the sentence. , i acceptle judges your verdict with others utter disgust. Please sit down. Amy pralyak then tilted his head back as he drank from a glass bottle, telling the stunned courtroom moments later, i just drank poison he later died at a nearby hospital. Its not clear how the 72yearold prisoner might have smuggled poison into the iccs courtrooms. In 2013, pralyak was foundnd guilty o of crimimes against humanity, violations of ththe ls war, and d of violating the geneva conventions. And in argentina, a federal court in buenos aires sentenced 29 former members of the u. S. Backed militatary junta to life imprisonment on tuesday, over their roles in carrying out murders during the u. S. Backed military junta of the 1970s and 1980s. Among those sentenced were two former military pilots who led socalled death flights, in which activists and dissidenents were thrown from an airplane into the south atlantic. Tuesdays ruling was welcomed by members of the group mothers of the plaza de mayo, who rallied near the courthouse in buenos aires. This is taty almeida, whos spent the last 40 years searching for her daughter, who was abducted by the argentine dictatorship in 1976. We agree that these trials should move forward despite of how this government wants to continue to put sticks in the spokes of the wheels of justice, but to hear life in prison for the pilots creates a mix of emotions which are interwoven. I dont know if the words happiness, but yes, we are celebrating that this is happening. Amy and those are some of the headlines this is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Welcome to our listeners and viewers around the country and around the world. President donald trump drew International Outrage tuesday after he retweeted three violent videos shared by a leader of a farright, antimuslim, antiimmigrant group based in the u. K. The videos purport to show violence carried out by muslims. Before trump retweeted them, the videos were were posted early tuesday by jayda fransen, deputy leader of the Group Britain first. Fransen was arrested just days ago on hate speech charges over an appearance in belfast last she was previously found guilty august. Of religiously aggravated harassment after she verbally accosted a muslim shopkeeper during a socalled christian patrol last year in the english town of luton. Trumps retweets drew condemnation across the political spectrum in britain. Labour Party Parliamentarian david lammy tweeted, the president of the United States is promoting a fascist, racist, Extremist Hate Group whose leaders have been arrested and convicted. He is no ally or friend of ours. In a rare rebuke, conservative Prime Minister theresa may said, it is wrong for the president to have done this. But may did not rescind her governments invitation to host President Trump for a state visit. In the u. S. , muslim groups were swift to condemn trumps retweets. Ththis is ibrahim cooper, head f ththe council on american islamc relations. S. A conversation n is designed to start as a c conversation of hatred, bigotry, and white suprememacy and itit is the same conversation donald trump and his people around him have been pushing for years now. Amy two of the videos retweeted by trump which were filmed in egypt and syria and presented without context, were titled, islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death and muslim destroys a statue of virgin mary. A third video titled muslim migrant beats up dutch boy on crutches shows one teenager kicking and punching another. The tweeted claim was widely reported as false, including by the Dutch Embassy in washington dc, which tweeted, facts do matter, the perpetrator of the violent act in this video was born and raised in the netherlands. He received and completed his sentence under dutch law. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders was grilled by reporters over the videos. Again, whether it is a real video, the threat is real and that is whahat the president is talking about, that is what the president is focused on, dealing with those real threats. Those are really matter how you talk about it. [indiscernible] look, im m not talking ababt the nature of the video. You are focusing on the wrong thing. Amy trumps retweets drew praise from his farright supporters, including louisiana politician and ku klux klan leader david duke who tweeted, thank god for trump thats why we love trump and why the Fake News Media hates trump. The truth is, the media covers of racist hate crimes against white people. Well, for more we go to washington, d. C. Where we are joined by mehdi hasan, awardwinning british journalist and broadcaster at al jazeera english. He is host of the al jazeera Interview Program upfront and a columnist for the intercept. He is also a contributing editor to the new statesman magazine u. K. Thanks a much for joining us. Can you start off by responding to President Trump retweeting these videos and explain exactly what this group, britain first, is. First, as the mayor of london pointed out, is a bio Extremist Group vile Extremist Group. It is britains most wellknown and loathed Extremist Groups. It was founded by a neonazi. Its deputy leader has been convicted for religiously activated aggravated harassment of a muslim family. They operate socalled christian patrols. They mount invasions of british mosques. This is a far right fascist stick fascist group. The president of the United States decided to retweet their fake videos three times. The president , who is obsessed with fake news, decided to tweet a fascist groups fake videos and we really have to take a moment to really absorb that. I dont think we quite have absorbed how bad it is. You talked about international condemnation. That is all well and good. Wheres the domestic condemnation . Not a single membebeof the whihe house hahas resigned over this. Not a Single Member of the Republican House or senate has come out against thihis in strtg terms. It is honest like we have normalized the far right behavior. Nermeen what about in britain . To go back to the group itself, britain first has very few followers in britain, i understand, and is even rejected by thehe rightwing popupulist y , the u. K. Independence party. Mehdi even the United Kingdom Independence Party tries to distance itself from britain first. Britain first gets very few votes in any election. I think they got 50 votes in a recent constituency election. None of the people come anywhere close to power, thank god, and none of f them get a power desk platform from mainstream conservative parties in the u. K. The british conservative Prime Minister came out and condemned these videos. Which alsoovernment, condemned the fake dutch video, is also a conservative government. This is not liberals and left wingers. Se are liberals telling conservatives telling donald trump, stop promoting fascism in europe. The labor mp murdered last year by a far right neonazi, what did he shout before he opened fire . He shouted, britain first. Joe coxes widow eloquently and passionately denounced Donald Trumps retweets and pointed out that donald trump has enabled the far right in the u. S. Amy lets go to brendan coxe. We have a clip of him, the shot toof the labor mp death last year when, during the attack mair reportedly shouted , britain first, a reference to the fringe Rightwing Party whose videos trump retweeted wednesday. Mair also had ties to the neonazi national alliance. This is cox speaking wednesdsda. I have to say i i thought it was a her in t this thing to do. Britain first is a wellknown hate group that drives hatred against muslims and donalald trp is t the president of r neneart ally and the fact that he did not check first or did not even think about the content of those tweets before doing it suggegess his judgment, his lack of judgment. Amy cox took to twitter wednesday to condemn trump, writing, trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now hes trying to do it in hours. Spreading hatred has consequences the president should be ashamed of himself. Cox also wrote an oped in the guardian headlined by retweeting britain first, trump offends a decency he cannot understand. In the piece, cox said trumps state visit should not happen. That is exactly whats sadiq khan, the london mayor has said. Talk about that visit next year and even the british Prime Minister theresa may, the conservative Prime Minister, in a very rare rebuke, saying in a statement, it is wrong for the president to have done this. And then trump hit back on twitter saying, theresesa may, dont focus on me, focus on the destructive radical islamic terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine brendan cox, the widower of former labour mp jo cox, fired back at trump, tweeting you have a mass shooting every single day in your country, your murder rate is many times that of the u. K. , your Healthcare System is a disgrace, you cant pass anything through a congress that you control. I would focus on that. Now, interestingly, trump initially addressed his tweet to a twitter handle that was not mays, but later retweeted to the british leaders correct account. May was the first foreign leader to visit him after his inauguration, and has invited him for a state visit, a move that has angered trumps many critics in britain. Mehdi yes, he tweets at the wrong theresa may. People say trump is impulsive on twitter, he is erratic, unstable. He tweets at the wrong theresa may, you might think, this is a moment to undo that. Then he deletes that tweet and retweets again with the correct theresa may to make sure he attacks his close ally publicly after a pointless spat the started by deliberately retweeting fascist videos. Those videos are still up on his twitter timeline the last time i checked a few minutes ago. He has not unretweeted those despite having been told this is a fascist, far right group. As for the state visit, the mayor of london has maintained consistently it is time to rescind this. The British Government wont do it. Theresa may wont do it. She has called this all wrong. For theresa may, this is deeply embarrassing. She was the first leader to fly out and meet donald trump, where she held his hand at the white house. A new book is out in the u. K. Which revealed that may and her advisers believed that donald trump would moderate, he would give it after the election, he would become a much more normal president , as many people in the u. S. Wrongly assumed and he hasnt and he is still doing these crazy things, endorsing conspiracy carries and far right videos online every day of this week, literally since monday. There has been one mad statement or tweet after another. Will trump even go to the United Kingdom . Im not so sure. Apparently according to some reports, his people have been telling the British Government hes only going to come on the state visit if they can guarantee no protests. The United Kingdom is not the kingdom of saudi arabia, the last time i checked, they cannot guarantee that there will not be prototests against a White Nationalist president coming from abroad. Amy i want to ask you about Sarah Huckabee sanders. It is profound what she said. Lets listen to it again. Again, whether it is a real video, the threat is real and that is what the president is talking about, that is whahat te president is focused on, dealing with those real threat and those are real matter how you look at it. [indiscernible] im not talking about the nature of the video. I think you are focusing on the wrong thing. Amy there she says she doesnt care whether the videos are e rl or not. Mehdhdi listening to Sarah Huckabee sanders day after day makes me urine for sean spicer, to be honest. [laughter] eyed this daily, dead denial of truth, of facts, of reality. Kellyanne conway started it all off with her alternative facts defense of the president. Huckabee sanders has taken it to the next level. Dont focus on the thick video, focus on the random, unrelated point that the president was not even really making. It is a real problem when journalists indulge this. This week as the White House Christmas party. Only cnn has said they will not be going. Other networks have not taken that step and we have this problem that a lot of mainstream news organizations simply dont know, arent able to cope with a president who lies daley, who endorses conspiracy theories daily, who cavort with far right nationalists daily, and has a press secretary willing to lie on his behalf, coverup on his behalf, deny the truth on his behalf. How does the media cover a president and press secretary like that . The first step is to stay say this is not normal and we will not cover it in a normal way. Until we do that, we will lurch from daily crisis in controversy to the next. Nermeen i want to go to another issue related. A recent opinion piece by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman titled saudi arabiass arab spring at last. He writes, though i came here at the start of saudi winter, i found the country going through its own arab spring, saudistyle. Unlike the other arab springs, all of which failed miserably, except in tunisia, this one is led from the top down by the 32yearold and, if ite succeeds, it will not only change the character of saudi arabia, but the tone and tenor of islam across the globe. He goes on to say that he is not only leaving an anticorruption drive in the kingdom, but is also bringing saudi islam back to its more open and modern to what they described as a moderate, balanced islam open to all the world and all religions and all traditions and peoples. In an article for the you presented a completely different perspective on the kingdom. Could you respond to t thomas frfriedmans peace and the fact that, as trump, vocally crcriticizes practically everything to do with islam, he chose to make his first state visit to saudi arabia . Mehdi yes. Lets just deal with Thomas Friedman. A nauseating piece, as a lot of people have pointed out. An embarrassment of a piece. If the saudi arabia and government were set up a ministry of propaganda, they could hire tmas frieiean. Offensive part on the piece and you have cover the conflict in yemen. It is the worlds worst humanitarian catastrophe. The defense minister started that, continues to escalate it as crown prince and friedman gives it one passing reference in the piece, as if heres a moderate modernizer who is bombing the middle easts poorest country and trying and failing to starve them into submission. As for this nonsense about returning to moderate islam, saudi arabia has never been the home of moderate islam. Moderate979 with some bastion of liberalism and pluralism, this idea is absurd. Saud family have been in charge of that country and imposing their brand of very intolerant, very reactionary islam, it has not been moderate in any shape or form. The Saudi Arabians have been exporting their puritanical brand of islam to the rest of the world since 1950s. This nonsensical argument that if we could just go back to pre1979, we would all be moderate again, is absurd. It is very easy to say we will give women drivers the right to drive, the only country that did not do that to begin with, great, we all applaud that there is much more that this crown prince has to do before he can even talk about a moderate islalam coming out of saudi. Donald trump, after accusing saudi arabia of being behind 9 11, President Trump decided to make his first trip to the kingdom of saudi arabia, where he danced with swords and received lovely gifts and endorsed every saudi geopolitical plan in the region tom blockading qatar, bombing yemen, to escalating the conflict of a war of words which could d become a hot war with iran. Trump, he is not just a liar and a conspiracy theorist, hes a hypocrite. Shock, horror. ,e cozies up to saudi arabia which many would say that hahas done more to promote radical islam. Amy we want to turn to the issue of trumps proposed travel fromwhich bans people eight t countries, six of ththem with muslim majorities, from entering the United States. Federal judges have partially blocked its implementation. Oral arguments are scheduled for next week in federal Appeals Court cases. A lawyer on the Hawaii Travel ban case posted a link to News Coverage wednesday of the ,residents tweets writing thanks, see you in court next week. What impact do you think trumps retweets of these videos that have been so widely condemned across the political spectrum will have on his attempt to enforce this third iteration of a travel ban . What many call a muslim band. Mehdi it is a very good point, amy. Every judge who has looked at this since january come a when the first version came out, has referred to his tweets, his statements during the campaign to point out that when the Trump Administration says this is nothing to do with religion or islam, hold on, the president said that it is to do with islam, to do with muslims. It is not just a lawyer pointing to the tweets. Yesterday, the deputy white House Press Secretary on Board Air Force one, when asked by journalists is the president hostile toward muslims given these tweets, what did he say . He said, i think the president has addressed that with his travel order. He referred himself to the president s travel order being about muslims. Their own administration keeps underminining him. Amy y the terms unhingege unbound, untethered, losing it, unstable. The New York Times writing a major piece about what is going on in the white house right now with trump tweeting out conspiracy theories, once again talking about president obama being in illegitimate, that he was not born in the united thees, saying that perhaps access hollywoodd video was t real, even though he acknowledged it and apologized for it, and then last night, when talking about the tax plan, reading script that said Something Like rocket fuel for sayeconomy, got inspired to , by the way, rocket fuel, rocket man, then called the north Korean Leader a sick puppy. All of this is happening in the midst of this major escalation with north korea that could lead to a nuclear war as he attacks his closest ally, the british Prime Minister, theresa may, who he might need in this case. What about this . This most unstable time . E . Mehdi i mean, i think the main way to deal with trump, to try to respond to trump is to stop being surprised. I know it is hard for us to stop being shocked because he is so good at shocking us, but we have to try to stop being shocked if we are going to tackle the menace he poses to global stability and peace. Theorist inspiracy his campaign. He thanked alex jones and went on infowars. We should not be shocked when he is a conspiracy theorist. He told us he was a white supremacist on the campaign trail. We should not be shocked when he promotes White Nationalism on twitter as president. This is who he has always been. Dangerous, unstable, a White Nationalist. He has always been over the decades. Im not sure why so many journalists start from the premise that he is who he says he is, he is a conspiracy theorist, a white nationanalist and unstable. Some of americas leading psychiatrists have put together a book that shows he is a danger to us all because he is so unstable. We have to stop pretending that this is any kind of normal president. He is not. Amy we want to thank you for being with us. Awardwinning british journalist, broadcaster at al jazeera english, columnist for the intercept, we will link to your piece on the criticism of Thomas Friedmans piece in the New York Times. This is democracy now when we come back, we will be speaking with the nobel prizewinning economist joseph stiglitz. [music break] by he would love it to me yusuf islam, formerly cat stevens. Nermeen Senate Republicans took anotheher step forward t to pass their tax overhaul. President trumps tax plan would overhaul the code to shower billions of dollars of tax cuts on the richest americans. It would cut the Corporate Tax rate to 20 and reduce individual tax rate, though those tax rates would be temporary. The bill would also repeal the Affordable Care acts individual mandate. Trump touted his tax plan at a rally in missouri wednesday, where he claimed h he would not benefit from the legislation. President trump right now, americas tax code is a total, dysfunctional mess. The Current System has cost our nation millilions of american jobs, trillions and trillions of dollars and billions of hours wasted on paperwork and compliance. It is riddled with loopholes that left some specialinterest, including myself, in all fairness, this is going to cost me a fortune, this thing. Believe me. This is not good for me. Wealthyome very friends. Not so happy with me. But thats ok. I keep hearing chuck schumer, this is for the wealthy, but my friends dont know about it if it is. [laughter] amy if the senate approroves te tax measure later this week, it would need to be reconciled with a version already approved by the house before being sent to the white house for trump to sign into law. For more were joined by the Nobel Prize Winning economist, joseph stiglitz. Columbia university professor, and chief economist for the roosevelt institute. He served as chairman of the council of economic advisers under president bill clinton. Author of numerous books, including just out this week his newly revised and updated globalization and its discontents revisited antiglobalization in the era of trump. It is great to have you back, professor. What thisby assessing tax plan is in the senate and what you feel it needsds to be o serve this country. It is labeled a reform, but not a reform. A reform would be simplification, getting rid of all the loopholes, and ensuring that the corporations actually paid the statutory rate. The official rate is 35 , but the average take from the corporations is much lower than that. What this does is it lowers the rate still further, it does not really fix the loopholes. When it says the statutory rate is 20 , they actually will be paying much lower than that. The famous case was apple. They were stashing their profits in ireland. They were paying less than 1 of taxes. Rofits as so, they wont really be closing many of the loopholes. A few of the problems will be addressed, but most will not. In fact, what they are opening loopholes. Set of we call them tax arbitrage. You have a rate on corporations of 20 . But ordinary individuals pay a higher rate. You have a problem of what do you do with small businesses, unincorporated businesses . Now, they create another rate for what they call pass through. Thats its up incentives for people to try to converge their income from ordinary income into a passthrough. What they are opening up is a whole new set of complexities, the rulebook about when you can and cannot convert something from ordinary income into a passssthrough will be complex. Everybody says it is going to be really difficult. Doctors will be able to convert part of their business into a Holding Company that owns the real estate. Is that a business or is that a personal servivice company . . Amy will it benefit trump, these passthroughs . Prof. Stiglitz it is very clear that the oveverall reduction of rates, including the pastors pass throughs, they are going to be mass winners of this. It would really be interesting for him to release his tax returns and say, ok, heres the andi paid under the old law heres the tax i pay under the new law. See, isld enable us to he telelling the truth . But, you know, weve never seen him tell the truth before, so why should we expect, on this particular issue, where he is deliberately taking a stance he is not going to release his tax returns, why do we expect him to tell the truth here . E . Trumpn lets go back to speaking on wednesday. He said the Senate Tax Overhaul would eliminate certain loopholes for corporations. President trump the plan that senators will be voting on this week, hopefully as soon as loopholescloses the that corporations used to shift profits to tax havens and it eliminates to directions ceo salaries over 1 million. You see with some of these people are making. A little ridiculous. Im driving up their stock, they are making a fortune, then they go to the boardrd, they tell everybody what a great job they are doing, but whahat am i going to do . [laughter] many of them,p honestly, i dont like. [laughter] nermeen President Trump says the loopholes that his tax plan will close are the ones that corporations used to shift profits to tax havens and that it eliminates deductions for ceo salaries over 1 million. Is that correct . Prof. Stiglitz part of the thing is we dont have the tax bill. It has not been written or theyre just trying to finish it. It is really difficult for us to try to see. Certainly, the newspaper coverage has not clarified what they are doing. Of this money abroad, what they are going to do is change the loss or you are just not taxed on the money abroad. It used to be that you are taxed on it, you do not have to pay the tax until you brought it home. The answer to that is not to tax it at all. That is not going to be hurting the company. They are just not going to be taxed. It really encourages them to engage in the business offshore in some low Tax Jurisdiction becaususe they get t to thl never be taxed on that money. It is called the territorial system. It actually wiwill be a furtrthr lowering of the effective tax rate on corporations. Amy you are a professor at Columbia University. Yesterday, we had a graduate student on and there was a massive graduate student walkouts across the country yesterday because of what is written in the senate bill. Can you once again talk about this and how this is going to affect Higher Education and the attitude toward education that this reflects . Prof. Stiglitz there is always a kind of vindictiveness of this. It is not only taxing graduate students, tuition amy they get tuition waivers, but they are taxed. Prof. Stiglitz they dont see the money, but they have to pay a tax bill. They are also taxing the endowments of private universities. Our universities are one of the strong institutions in the country. If you look at where is our successful growth, Silicon Valley, hightech, where does that come from . It comes based on the research that goes on mostly in these private universities. Stanford, the reason why Silicon Valley is where Silicon Valley is is stanford university. The research that goes on at harvard, m. I. T. , caltech is really pivotal to our country. Yet, there is an antiscience attitude. Let me connect this with some of the other things that were going on. There is an attitude against orth, against the mechanisms institutions by which we ascertain what is true and what is not. They are against climate science, Climate Change. The coal industryy does not like it. Thehey get campaign contributios from the coal industry. They dont want people to know what science says. S. 99. 9 of scientiststs say that Climate Change is real. Yet, they are trying to deny it. I think you have to see it in terms of this big picture of undermining our institutions, of how we tell what is true and what is not. Amy speaking of big picture, talk about the tax plan and what it means for the rich, the middle class, the working class, the poor in this country. Where is the money shifting to, even as we just heard President Trump saying the wealthy dont like me . Prof. Stiglitz you have to begin with understanding what is one of our countrys biggest problems . It is the growing inequality. Globalization, which i wrote about in my book, one of the reasons for this growth in inequality is globalization. This is clearly one of our key problems and yet, what does this tax plan do . They put in some temporary provisions to sort of get through the next election, but beginning in the middle of the next decade, after that, those 75,000come is under are actually going to see a tax increase on average. For thenot a tax cut ordinary american, it is a tax increase. What is permanent is the tax cut for corporations and the tax cuts for these passthroughs. Taxes on the billionaires, taxes on the millionaires are going to go down. This is another aspect of that perhaps has not gotten and for sized as much as it should emphasized as much as it should. There is an assault against states. Income,ility of state property taxes are going to be limited, in some cases eliminated. What is that going to mean . It is going to be harder for states to raise money. What does that mean . It is going to be harder to finance education, basic services that we provide at the state level. So, as we try to compete in a globalized world, which the president talked about yesterday , what is the most important part of our competition . Having a strong education, and educated labor force, the ability to provide the kinds of services that the stateses provide. That i is what makes us competitive. Yet, he is eroding those basic things that make america strong. Amy we are going to break and then come back to this discussion. Is our guest,z professor at Columbia University, nobel prizewinning economist. His book is just out, newly revised and updated. Globalization and its discontents revisited antiglobalization in the era of trump. We will talk more about it in a minute. [music break] amy build a bridge by mavis staples. On her new album. Democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are speaking with Nobel Prize Winning economist, joseph stiglitz. He is a Columbia University professor, and chief economist for the roosevelt institute. He served as chairman of the council of economic advisers under president bill clinton. Nermeen he is the author of numerous books, including recently, globalization and its discontents revisited antiglobalization in the era of trump, which is an update and expansion on his Landmark Book that played a key role in the debate over globalization by which was published in 2001. The introduction to the new book begins, donald j. Trump became president of the United States on january 20th, 2017, and threw a hand grenade into the Global Economic order. Professor stiglitz, could you elaborate on that . What precisely did trump do that through a hand grenade into the Global Economic order . Prof. Stiglitz since world war ii, we have been trying to create a rulesbased system, a Global Economic system. We understand what makeses our economy function is what we call the rule of law. What is true domestically is also true internationally. It is also important to have rules by which we govern relations with other countries. When he has announced he is not going to obey those rules come he is going to reject the treaties we have had in the past, he is going to go from what is called a multiple lateral system, where we all Work Together to trying to deal country by country and basically throw out what has been achieved over a 60year period. Nermeen one of the things that you also note in the book is that many people, there are very good reasons that many people have been disenchanted with in the form it took b because of resulting inequality. You write that trump took advantage of this discontent, crystallized and amplified it. Can you talk about the nature of the discontent that globalization engendered and how trump took advantage of it . What precisely did he use to make himself and his platform so popular . Prof. Stiglitz the basic thing is that he blamed others for the problems that we have in the United States. We have a problem. Lets face it. The typical income, median income, of a fulltime male worker, workers who have a fulltime job are the lucky ones, is at the same level it was 42 years ago. At the bottom, real wages in the United States are at the same level they were 60 years ago. Our economy has not served large fractions of the population. He grasps that. , what have weying not done right . He says, it is those foreigners, lets build a wall. He says globalization is unfair to the United States. I wrote in the original versrsin of my book that globalization was unfair to the developing countries. I saw it with my own eyes as i was chief economist of the world bank. Africa wcsubsaharan other places where we took advantage of others. U. S. The question, how can it be unfair to the United States and unfair to those in the developing countries . That was one of the reasons i wrote the book, to grapple with that question. Also, the United States was the main architect of globalization. Prof. Stiglitz he said we got snookered, that those agreements like nafta were the worst agreements ever and suggested that our trade negotiators were snickered by these smart negotiators from mexico or africa. It is laughable. I have watched these trade negotiations. We got what we wanted. The problelem was with h what we wanted. The agenda had been set by our corporations. Is that workers in the United States and workers in the developing countries were often disadvantaged. They were worse off. The big winners were our corporations. This sits back withoutut tax scscussion. Thth win on glglobalization. He has identified globalization as a problem. Amy you were the chair of economic advisers to president clinton who to the horror of many pushed through nafta that donald trump campaigned against very successfully, saying this does not advantage workers. What about that . This laying of the groundwork . Prof. Stiglitz yes, that was a problem. There e was a hope by some peope that what we call trickledown economics would work. If you made the economy pie bigger, everybody would bebenef. Knowars after nafta, we that that is not true. We should have known then. Amy many did. Prof. Stiglitz and many did. But now we are 30 years later, 25 years later, and it is unambiguously clear that trickledown economics does not work. What does that mean . Starteans we have to economic policies to make sure we have shared prosperity. Y. You dont do that by giving aa tax cut to the big winners and raising taxes on ththose who hae not done very well. Your Economic Policy has to respond to the way our Economic System has been working. , use offessor stiglitz President Trump is unfit to serve. Why . , the stiglitz well decisions about where the economy is going our very complex. He does not understand them. Rather than approach this with analysis, so, for instance, if you begin to try to analyze the ,roblem, you would say, ok there is a problem of inequality and we have to help those who are not doing very well, there is a problem with a trade deficit amy you dont think he does understand . Prof. Stiglitz i really think he deeply does not understand that, for instance, that the tax cut he is proposing, which will result in 1. 5 trillion deficit what he says,is but the real numbers are probably twice that number, they are going to increase the trade deficit. There is a clear relationship between the fiscal deficit, when that goes out, the trade deficit goes up. The way this happens is through the increase in the value of the exchange rate. The problem that he is arguing, the trade deficit, he is going to make worse. Trade agreements determine which country we have a deficit with. Amy we only have 20 seconds. Are you making a bigger point when you say he is unfit to serve . Prof. Stiglitz he is particularly unfit to servrve because he approaches these without any view of what the truth is and he approaches these with an enormous amount of prejudice. You cannot begin saying we want to solve the problem when you againstindset that is the mexicans, against islam. Amy do you think he should be impeached . Prof. Stiglitz we would then have a problem with mike pence. Amy were going to leave it there. I want to thank you so much for being with us. Nobel prizewinning economist joseph stiglitz. His new book is globalization and its discontents revisited antiglobalization in the era of trump