Patt Morrison for Thursday, February 3, 2011

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Thursday, February 3, 2011

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

1:06 – 1:30

OPEN

 

 

1:30 - 1:58:30

Looking through the loopholes at the strange world of corporate taxes

The United States has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world.  It also has the most loopholes.  So many loopholes in fact that many corporations spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to figure out how not to pay the IRS.  There aren’t many issues the Obama Administration and Republicans agree on, but corporate tax reform is one of them, even the conservative Business Roundtable (a corporate lobbying group) supports an overhaul.  The question then becomes do we reduce the tax rate or the loopholes?  According to the New York Times of the 500 big companies in the Standard & Poor’s stock index, 115 paid a total corporate tax rate of less than 20% over the past five years—thirty-nine companies paid a rate less than 10%.  It’s maddening for the average American that pays an income tax rate closer to 30%, and detrimental to a federal government that desperately needs the tax revenue.  But how do you close all of those loopholes and collect more corporate taxes, in the face of a fierce corporate lobby and the potential for economic damages?  We look through the loophole at the strange world of corporate taxation.

 

Guests:

David Leonhardt, “Economic Scene” columnist & business reporter at the New York Times.  He wrote story, “The Paradox of Corporate Taxes”

CALL HIM @

 

Michelle Hanlon, associate professor of accounting at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T

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• She and two other accountants, one from Duke and another from the University of North Carolina examined the corporate tax structure and made recommendations for analyzing corporate tax avoidance. 
• She is in quoted in Leonhardt’s story The Paradox of Corporate Taxes

 

 

 

2:06 – 2:30

Got tests?  How should the FDA test for antibiotics in milk?

It’s moved beyond a trendy stance of naturalists and into the mainstream—meat and milk that is free of antibiotics.  The FDA has serious concerns about the levels of antibiotics found in older dairy cows and has adopted a plan for testing them, but the diary industry isn’t over the moon about the program.  The dairy folks say the testing program was ill conceived, too costly, and is unnecessary because the milk isn’t harmful.   So the FDA has postponed the program until it can come up with a new plan.  However questions persist about whether there are too many antibiotics used in livestock, and specifically in milk, and what threat they pose to human health.  There are concerns about whether the overuse of antibiotics in the food industry is contributing to the ineffectiveness of antibiotics in the population at large.  Can the FDA and the dairy industry find middle ground?

 

Guests:

John J. Wilson, senior vice president, Dairy Farmers of America

HE CALLS US

 

Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director, Center for Science in the Public Interest

CALL HER @

 

 

2:30 – 2:39

OPEN

 

 

2:41 – 2:58:30

Make an appointment at your local ER

Pay for an online appointment for the emergency room? Is that a contradiction in terms? And money back if you don’t get looked at in 15 minutes? That’s the plan behind a system that hospitals are adopting across the Southland as a means to save time, money and resources. InquickER, for a fee ranging from $14.99 to $24.99 per month(?), allows subscribers to make an appointment at their participating emergency care center, online. And they claim they can do it without taking time or resources away from true emergency patients. Patt talks with a local ER doctor about how this InquickER system has changed their daily routine and are there broader applications for systems like this in the current healthcare climate? How much many can be saved through better planning?

 

 

Guests:

TBA, ER doctor at InquickER participating facility

 

BACK-UP: Chris Song, InquickER PIO

 

-         Present in 23 facilities in 8 states; 8 facilities in California

-         Any participating system uses the triage system to prioritize and prevent taking valuable resources away from true emergency cases

-         Saves money!!

 

NOT CONFIRMED:

Jamie Court, President, Consumer Watchdog

VIA ISDN

 

 

Jonathan Serviss
Senior Producer, Patt Morrison
Southern California Public Radio
NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles
89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3 KPCV-FM
626.583.5171, office
415.497.2131, mobile
jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org
www.scpr.org