John Carney’s Tele-Town Hall

Filed in Delaware by on February 28, 2012

Frequent commenter Puck is listening in on John Carney’s Tele-Town Hall. He was live-blogging in in the Open Thread, but I think he deserves his own thread. I have moved all his comments here. Thanks Puck!!

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  1. puck says:
    February 28, 2012 at 7:38 pm

    On the line with John Carney telephone town hall now. Just searched Google News and Carney hasn’t done anything to irk me late – oh wait, he’s talking now.

  2. puck says:
    February 28, 2012 at 7:48 pm

    Q: Cathy from Dover: Unemployment is high even with advanced degree. Anecdotes of PhDs with temp work or new job. Question: What are we doing for people who already have advanced education?

    Carney: set conditions where businesses can be successful
    – invest in IT and R&D; segues to “Make It In America” tax credit –
    – invest in infrastructure => transportation bill
    – “things we can do on the tax and regulatory side” — DRINK!!!

  3. puck says:
    February 28, 2012 at 7:51 pm

    Q2 was something about the postal service. I had to put the phone down for a few minutes and he is still talking about it.

  4. puck says:
    February 28, 2012 at 7:57 pm

    Q3 is Steve from Newark, on education. Appreciative of Dr. Lowrey.. but concern right now is RTTT money didn’t go into classroom, most of money went into data systems, data coaches [not true]. Local school boards should have more flexibility to spend that money

    Carney launches into generic pro-education speech. “Three things we need for strong education…” “Produce best educated kids in the world” “teachers using data” “supportive parents” “principals administrators empower teachers” (whew).

    “Federal level has a fairly small role” 7-8% Delaware ed money comes from Federal, most of that goes to special ed/disadvantaged.

    NCLB up for renewal, not a lot of “unanimity of support”

    Carney agrees more state and local control of Fed money

  5. puck says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:02 pm

    Josh from Wilmington… 100% debt to GDP, keep increasing debt, why is there not a more serious discussion between House, Senate, etc and American people… even if we raise taxes on rich we have to cut spending

    Carney. A really really serious matter, really serious discussions, a priority but not been able to reach consensus

    Carney says Two problems: Soft recovery, not time to completely pull back, but deficit is long term problem. Biggest driver is increasing health care spending, including military and veterans. Need a plan for discretionary spending and military discretionary spending. Starts talking about automatic supercommission spending cuts, Carney is opposed to waiving supercommission automatic cuts.

    Support some sort of “grand plan” like Bowles Simpson.

  6. John Young says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:04 pm

    Lie! most does not go into special ed, flat out lie!

  7. John Young says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:05 pm

    Title one is majority but to conflate disadvantaged with special ed is disingenuous on its face!

  8. puck says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:06 pm

    Sean? from Middletown: partisan bickering (DRINK!!): How to break gridlock?

    Carney: Great question! Biggest frustration of my first year!

    can’t get bipartisan infrastructure, energy bills.

    Future of economy depends on if leaders come up with long term deficit/debt reduction plan.

    Carney lists his displays of bipartisanship… still going…

  9. puck says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:07 pm

    “Lie! most does not go into special ed, flat out lie!”

    This is on the fly transcription, which I suck at, so be careful.

  10. puck says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:12 pm

    John from Middletown: works in manufacturing, sees jobs leaving, Obama tried to encourage manuf. to come back – what is Congress doing to try to encourage jobs to come back? Better solutions than heavy subsidies to bring jobs back?

    Carney: Manufacturing needed, can’t be just a service economy, etc. Need education, R&D, infrastructure plan… Mentions Obama’s tax break for manufacturers, Carney says it is a good idea.

    Enforce trade agreements, China cheats.

  11. pandora says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:14 pm

    Thanks for doing this, puck!

  12. puck says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:16 pm

    Andre from Camden: What is going on with the investigation of the Dover military mortuary?

    Carney: good response, nothing remarkable.

  13. cassandra m says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:34 pm

    Nice job, puck.

    Between this, and the insanity on Twitter anticipating the Michigan and Arizona results, I note that Adam Taylor is live tweeting the NCCo Council meeting. I should have been well into my Mad Men episode by now!

    EDIT: Should have noted you can follow Adam here: @adam_AGT_taylor

  14. Anon says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    Mad Men? I need a scotch!

  15. cassandra m says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:47 pm

    And cigarettes! Even though I’m an ex-smoker, I’m astonished at how pervasive the smoking is on this show.

  16. Joanne Christian says:
    February 28, 2012 at 8:50 pm

    But that’s the way it was. If you remember, a nice desk set included a great lighter and ashtray.

  17. puck says:
    February 29, 2012 at 8:48 am

    My very own thread? I’m honored.

    The thing about this call was how unremarkable it was. The first time Carney drew our attention here, he was channelling GOP talking points on spending cuts and seemed ready to line up with Republicans on cuts to Social Security and Medicare. To be fair to Carney though, Obama was making the same kind of noises at the time too.

    After drawing criticism some months ago Carney stopped saying the top priority was the deficit, and started saying the top priority was jobs instead. I’d like to think this blog gets credit for that shift. Carney is now steering clear of the GOP talk (with one exception on spending cuts, see below).

    To show how far Carney has come, in the phone call last night Carney noted the soft recovery and said that now was not the time for deep spending cuts. That is a complete reversal from Carney’s earlier rhetoric, and brings him one step closer to the Democratic wing.

    Carney went on to assert some of his old rhetoric about the deficit and noted that it is a long-term problem (which is true). But unfortunately he then reiterated his support for a $4 trillion Grand Deal of spending cuts and “tax reform,” specifically Bowles Simpson, with its 29% top marginal rate for the rich. Which puts John Carney at odds with Obama’s tax reform package. So Carney still has more work to do on his tax position.

    Carney also let slip a line about “freeing up capital for job creators” or something like that. I guess he just can’t help himself.

    Carney said one more thing that was remarkable. When talking about health care and spending cuts, he specifically mentioned military and VA health care, and used the term “military entitlements.” I hope the phrase catches on.

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