Host and this week on the communicators we welcome back the president and ceo of the American Cable Association, matt polka. Mr. Polka, what is the American Cable Association . Guest thanks, peter. Nice to be here again. Nice to be here with you, lynn, as well. The American Cable Association is unique in the fact that we represent many smaller Cable Operators across the country, and everyone always asks me, are there still small Cable Operators left . In fact, there are nearly 900 of them in every corner you can imagine, rural areas, small towns. Many of them are providing Competitive Services even against some of the largest providers today. And whats great about these smaller companies, its a terrific story because theyre providing broadband, highspeed broadband in rural areas that desperately need Broadband Service. So these are the members we represent. Theyre smaller, theyre independent which means that theyre not affiliated with larger content companies or larger providers, and w
Their spouse has passed away, they are, in general, tougher and financial circumstances. It is not that i would not have some sympathy for changing benefits, but i would like to do is lower the most for those who are most capable of withstanding the reduction. What do you say . I think the most important point to make about the change cb i is it saves you very little in the long run. It raises you very little on the tax side. If thats the only thing we are contemplating, i guess we talked about eligibility for medicare but we were not talking about sufficient reforms to fix the problem we face. While historically, the chain cpi may have gone up by two or three points less than the cpi w use, there is no guarantee. Is just a forecast. That is just a forecast. We could save more or less depending on how things work out in terms of real reform, i would much rather look at something of this sort that bob discussed, some sort of progress of indexing approach to the problem. That would lower
Take over at the cia. Hamid karzai is coming to washington later this week, the headlines this morning about president obamas Foreign Policy agenda for 2013 we want to hear from you what are the challenges in 2013 on the foreignpolicy front . The numbers are on your screen. Send us a tweet or post your comments on facebook. Also send us an email. We are getting your reaction today to the nominations put out by the white house yesterday. President obama had a News Conference to put forth chuck hegel as well as the john brennan. To head the cia. Also, there are the headlines in the newspapers of syria, iran, peace in the middle east, etc so we want to get your take what to you think of Foreign Policy issues in 2013 . Here is some comments on our Facebook Page what is your take on this . We will get to your comments in a minute. The front page of the Washington Post here is the front page of the Huffington Post this morning these are all the headlines in the Huffington Post this morning.
I am not as worried that makes a good deal of difference. But it is not hard for congress to patch amt. He is a good the. What he struggles over is do we have to pay for it. If we do not, how will we deal with our guilt . There are not a lot of people maybe there are. Who sit around and worry about should we packed the alternative minimum tax or if we do, how will we construct the patch. Construct the patch . The answer is the same as the last nine years. How do you allow yourself to do this . How do you come up with the money or the rest rationalization not to do this . We try all these budget processes. From my own perspective, one of the things we have learned over the last few years, we have tried all these budget processes, andnothing seems to work. A wonder given the fact that Interest Rates areat the moment, there are not it does leave another pressure point. Given the fact that Interest Rates are negative there is not much incentives for a politician to make the tough roads the
Reelection of president obama. What does this mean for u. S. Politics Going Forward . Mapes also a geographic that shows the future of u. S. Politics is in the south and southwest. Battleground states are the old playful states. In the southwest. It used to be known as mexico. 19, 24. 19 of voters of color is a threshold for whether a coalition can win an election. The 2010 republican tidal wave was to the weight and reelected to the crack to the senate. The democrats to the senate. They were able to prevail because of this coalition. They have 19 with voters of color. This is where the picture starts to come more closely into focus. There are 24 states in america that will have 19 voters of color. Though states are overwhelmingly in the south and southwest. Texas areeorgia in the new battleground. They will take the legs out of the machine to make it nearly impossible for a republican to win the white house. Georgia lost only six percentage points. Bidder presents a great opportunity