the united states has no real cards to play with north korea. we ve got sanctions against the country, not a lot more sanctions. why can t we use a military response to take out weaponry? against a country that has nuclear weapons and highly unstable leader, i don t think that would be wise. i don t think anybody in the u.s. military would advise the president to do anything like that. and we have 30,000 troops is it in south korea, very important ally, another important ally in japan, destabilize all of east asia, major, major trading sort of hub for american goods and services. so no, i don t think the u.s. really has any levers it can exercise in north korea. it sounds to me like pure bluff. do you agree, tony? well here s the challenge. north korea has relentlessly pursued the capability of a long range missile that can reach the united states with a nuclear weapon. it s something sell rated theerts to get one. if you put the technology in the hands of a leader who acts at
if you want a trade deal with the united states, you better buy more from us than we buy from you. if it s the former, he can get that. if it s the latter, that is going to be the start of an international trade war. i was in europe. they don t know. they re examining it s like examining every word he says on trade and what is driving it. he wants everybody to lower their barriers to the sale of american goods and services and goods in their country or he wants more to buy from america than we buy from them. they don t know. in the answer lies a great deal of what the next couple years economically are growing to look like. neil: karl rove, good catching up with you. be well. thank you. neil: we re getting word now from the white house, it s working very closely with house and senate leaders on tax reform. no surprise there. the administration is keen on dramatically reforming the tax code. not only for companies but for individuals. companies seem to be coming up first in this
the trans-pacific partnership talks. hundreds of millions of people are clawing their way to the middle class. they are very interested in american goods and services. they are the safest and highest quality goods and services in the world. your point about them being the safest is also underlying this. the idea in part that this kind of trade agreement would raise the level of not only pay but also safety security, not only for the goods we would be import ping as americans but the circumstances under which workers would be operating in these nations. yet, a lot of progressives on this the side say hey that s not our worry. our worry is what will happen to american workers in american jobs. it should be our worry. whatever happens to the workers, if we raise the global floor for workers in developing countries it could potentially influence and help american workers. the issue now is the worry about the threat of american jobs going to places like bangladesh or vietnam. if that s
but the fundamental disagreement for people on the left is not really about the details. it s not about transparency. it s about whether you believe in free trade deals at all. and if you believe in the global economy, if you think that a more prosperous world will lead to more demand for american goods and services, then you re going to support it. and if you fundamentally don t buy into it and you think every trade deal has driven down american wages, then you re not going to support it. and there s not much the president can do about it. the majority of public opinion, rkm though, i think, believes generally in free trade. even if these deals are on, as you know, they re not actually free. they re highly regulated. we re swapping one form of wn+;รท regulation for another. and it s more free, but it s not actually free. there are every single industry has lobbied one way or another. in this case, labor and environmental groups are also at the table with their provisions, too.cecl so
freed an unnamed u.s. intelligence source who s been held in cuban prisons for more than 20 years. the u.s. has released the three remaining members of what were called the cuban five, they were convicted in 2001 of espionage. the other convicts are back in cuba already. they ve served most of their sentences, all of the cuban five are now back in cuba. the policy changes, by far the biggest and most dramatic changes since washington clamped an embargo on cuba way back in 1961. they include right now more travel for american passport holders, greater opportunities to visit cuba, tourism, greater export of american goods and services. americans will be allowed to bring cuban goods home in limited quantities. cuban expatriots will be able to send more money back home, all leading to a full restoration of full diplomatic relations. the u.s. announcing there will