is doing its part to help you and us meet those challenges. in the fall of 2010 as the merida initiative expired, a major renewal and expansion of the program emphasizing support from the courts, border security and stronger mexican communities. nevertheless the violence continued unabated. in the runup to a meeting with president obama in 2011 president calderon blamed the administration for not keeping promises, calling it knnotoriouy insufficient. what do americans need to cooperate on? in reducing drug consumption but they aren t haven t reduced it and putting the stop to the flow of arms but they haven t reduced it. it s increased. all of thises has fueled a furious debate inside mexico whether the drug war is even worst the cost? the public seems to provide its answer. when it elected nieto who ran on a pledge to improve lick safety as opposed to going head-to-head with the cartels. despite that president elect
mexico including helicopters and patrol planes. the results, though, have not been encouraging. going back to the end of 2006 when president calderon ordered a massive crackdown, one paper estimates more than 57,000 people have been killed in violence linked to organized crime and the drug war. other estimates reached 60,000. that figure includes scores of police, local officials, journalists, innocent bystand s bystanders. 84% of the municipalities have been affected by drug-related violence. in the spring of 2010 secretary of state hillary clinton visited mexico city and admitted the u.s. is part of the problem when it comes to fueling the country s $29 billion a year drug trade. we know that the demand for drugs drives much of this elicit trade, that guns purchased in the united states, as we saw some of the examples outside, are used to facilitate violence here in mexico. and the united states must and
these drug cartels? well, the election results are pretty clear. outgoing president calderon s candidate got 25% of the vote and came in third so the voice of the voters was relatively clear. we don t want more of this war. they did indicate what they didn t want. no more bloodshed. no more war. no more enormous efforts being made to interrupt drug shipments to the united states which fuel a market in the u.s., by the way, which is becoming increasingly legal, chuck, as we saw in washington state and colorado a couple three weeks ago. now you bring up an important point on this legalization movement and i wanted to get to it in a few minutes but i want to go back to sort of the domestic politics of mexico a little bit. what is nieto s ask going to be and does he want the merida
wolf blitzer, let me start with you. this is something that a lot of critics have said is a subject changer because we had real bad jobs news on friday and that just it riveted people throughout the weekend. is this an effort to change the narrative? it may be, in part, because the white house clearly believes this is a winning political issue for the president. he is going to make the point that for 98% of the american people, there will be no increase in their taxes. individuals making $200,000 or less a year. families making $250,000 or less, they will see no increase whatsoever. if nothing is done, everyone s taxes go up starting january 1st 2013, that s the so-called fiscal cliff. for 2% making more than that, they will go back to the tax rates that occurred during the clinton administration before the bush tax rates went into effect, 2001 and 2003. they will go back up to 39.6% from 35 or 36% right now. so, he will say these people can afford it. they will pay a lit
is it the 1%, or is it the middle class? we have a debate. a fascinating debate between two 1%ers. finally, thanks for the memories. a somewhat beautiful ballet by 50-ton ballerinas. but first, here s my take. many liberals now believe that the affordable care act, sometimes called obamacare, is unpopular only because most americans don t understand it. there s some truth to this. studies show that the core provisions of the bill are more popular than the bill itself. but there s also a reason rooted in reality why many americans worry about obamacare. its cost. remember, most americans have health care. what they worry about is the cost of insuring 20 million to 30 million more people. and unless the meteoric rise of health care costs is slowed, a big expansion of coverage might well remain unpopular no matter how it is explained. now, how is that going to happen? well, republican alternatives to obamacare such as they are do have a strategy to control costs. get consu