Patt Morrison for Mon, June 1

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Monday, June 1, 2009

1-3 p.m.

 

1:00 – 1:30

OPEN

 

 

1:30 – 2:00

Seeds of Terror

Award winning journalist Gretchen Peters is here with the story of Afghanistan’s exploding opium trade, detailing how terrorists have segued into the big business of illegal drugs and how a second terrorist attack could be funded entirely by drug sales to western addicts. Did our government know about the drug smuggling activates of both its enemies and its allies in the Karzai administration but repeatedly turn a blind eye?

 

Guests:

Gretchen Peters: Author, Seeds of Terror, How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda

Call her @

 

 

[NPR NEWS]

 

2:00 – 2:30

VAT to the Future: Reforming the U.S. Tax Code

Recognizable to anyone who has ever traveled abroad, the value added tax is the exotic, onerous-seeming sales tax that accompanies almost every purchase throughout Europe and beyond.  The VAT has never seriously been considered here, but that could soon change:  eager to reform a ridiculously convoluted tax code, close a multi-trillion dollar budget deficit AND fund hugely expensive programs like single-payer healthcare, the Obama Administration is ready to give the VAT a new look.  While a 10 – 20% VAT would spike the sales prices of almost every conceivable service or commodity, it could raise trillions in revenues—is the long-term payoff worth the pain at the cash register?

 

Guests:

Michael Graetz, professor of law at Yale Law School; author of 100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States

• Graetz served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy and a special counsel in the Treasury Department under George H.W. Bush.

 

Len Burman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute & direct of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center; visiting professor at Georgetown’s Public Policy Institute

• Burman has served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis at the Treasury Department from ’98 – ’00.
• Burman just testified in front of Congress on VAT scenarios, and he also helped House Democrats craft an unsuccessful 2007 plan to repeal the alternative minimum tax.

 

 

2:30 – 3:00

OPEN