December 20 – Paying For Civilization; Big Oil Escapes the Fiscal Cliff; A Petty Putin is Peeved at America

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Part 1	We begin with economist Jeffery Sachs who is Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of “The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity”. We discuss how in spite of the political wrangling, both the House and the White House would shrink our government back to the Eisenhower era with plans that would make deeper cuts than if we went over the so-called fiscal cliff.
Part 2	Then we continue the discussion on how lopsided the debate is in favor of cutting government services instead of raising taxes, and how little the American people realize what they are about to lose whichever deal is struck. Andy Kroll, a staff reporter in the Washington D.C. bureau of Mother Jones joins us to discuss his article at Mother Jones “Will Big Oil Keep the Subsidies in a Fiscal Cliff Deal” and how cuts in subsidies to big oil, who are now making record profits, are barely on the table and not in the cards.
Part 3	Then finally we discuss the latest crackdown on dissent in Russia by Vladimir Putin who held a marathon press conference today where he opined on whether the world will end tomorrow according to the Mayan calendar and offered citizenship to a French actor looking for a tax haven. Nina Khruscheva, a professor of International Affairs at The New School joins us to discuss the increasingly peeved and petty Russian leader who was forced to answer uncomfortable questions about corruption and a ban on U.S. adoption of Russian children.