The Sununu Shoot Out

I’m assuming that most of the people posting to this blog are fairly congnizant of the latest “goings-on” in our government and economy.  President Obama is expected to sign an estimated 780 billion dollar stimulus plan this coming Tuesday (Feb 17, 2009).  The bill did pass the house and senate; however, it was anything but bi-partisan.  Republicans have been blasting the plan as including much too much “pork” and not much real stimulus, whereas Democrats have admitted that the bill isn’t perfect but includes much needed aide to the economy. 

Recently, Former U.S. SenatorJohn Sununu appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to chat about the Stimulus Plan.  I found this INTERVIEW to be quite heated and interesting.  I’m not really interested in hearing who you thought won the discussion (I had it with everyone trying be right instead of fixing the problems); rather I’m interested on what you thought of the topics brought up in the interview (there were several great points made by both individuals).  Let me know you’re thoughts…

27 responses to “The Sununu Shoot Out”

  1. Over all I thought there were many interesting topics brought up in this interview, but the whole thing just went so quickly and neither one of them would be quite to let the other one finish their statement. The biggest thing I picked up on was just how much this stimulus package would cost and how John Sununu said every penny of it is “borrowed” money and that in the end we would have to pay it back. To me it makes no sense because if we have to take out a loan just to get us out of the ditch, but yet we have to pay it back just putting us back in the ditch in the first place. We are stilling paying for Iraq, ect. how can we pay for much more? I also read the comments on the bottom of the interview and some of those people were soooo mean!! They just wanted to pick John Sununu apart claiming the other guy won the debate because he talked over him.

  2. Anna Wasmund says:

    I thought it was interesting how Sununu brought up the point that he is by no means against or for government regulation but if anything is done it needs to be RIGHT government regulation. That statement could be seen as very enlightened or completely NO brainer.
    I didnt like the fact that the interviewer never really let John Sununu get his argument or statements out but constantly made jokes about everything.
    The points on the unintended consequences of the stimulus package were very pertinent too and the fact that Congress seems to assume the package will work 100% well which we all know probably wont happen.
    All together I think Sununu was completely degraded and was not given a fair chance to explain or argue his points. A mockery.

  3. Katie Francour says:

    As one of them stated we are digging ourselves out of the hole just to dig a new hole. It’s absolutely ridiculous. It seems we are borrowing more and more money every month! I also agree that the debate was extremely rushed and I thought they were both pretty rude in not letting one another finish their statements, but eh that’s people in politics! I thought it was interesting when they brought up the fact that we spent $700 billion in Iraq, so why not spend that money in the United States?!?! I believe he said something about shooting at the US so that he could get $700 billion. That was a very good point in my opinion! Also the discussion on how our future generation will be the ones asked to pay back all of this debt. It just seems silly that we are borrowing all this money to get out of debt, which will in the future cause them to go into debt trying to pay back the money! Also the package is intended to create jobs and as they stated that is not going to work out perfectly, so why risk it? Congress needs to think about the “unintended consequences” as they stated. I thought the entire debate was rather interesting and they did bring up very good points.

  4. Jacob Johnson says:

    Overall I get a laugh out of the general message that Senator Sununu is trying to deliver. He claims that tougher enforcement of laws already in place will fix the economy. We can date back to the constitution to see that laws are made to be very general. There are many interpretations to them, so they can be applied to a variety of circumstances. This makes them very tough to enforce, because anyone accused of breaking laws is likely to find a ‘loop hole’ from which to escape. I don’t really get much valuable information out of this conversation as it seems to be more of an argument. He cites several things such as lowing the interest rate as the ‘wrong thing to do.’ That wasn’t under the current administration. I really do not want to preach political party one bit, but I think it is only fair for the Republicans to take a step back here and give the Democrats a shot at bettering the economy and balancing the budget. They have proven to be pretty good at it in the past. The struggle for power right now in the House of Representatives is rather sickening.

  5. Sara Lind says:

    Both sides made valid points, and it seemed like there was some agreement. I think people need to keep in mind that this show is a political satire, so, of course, expect jokes. However, the point being made is that the economy needs to stimulated, but it has become quite worrisome that future generations will and have been incuring a huge debt to pay off. The stimulus package being passed is to address unemployment. The country needs more jobs so people can spend money and, thus, stimulate the economy – common sense. Instead of blaming the past administration for bad policymaking, which is clear, there needs to be a cure for the now. I think when the government is making all these “loans” and bailouts, it is necessary for bigger oversight. Furthermore, it is necessary to act now, but Congress needs to look at all sides of a bill. Is this not how bad policymaking was done in the past administration? For example, the patriot act, Congress was such in a rush to aid the president in “national security” that they did not consider how this may strip citizens of their basic rights.

  6. Jessica Mesmer says:

    I thought there were definitely some interesting points brought up in this interview. I liked when Jon called out former Senator John about government control. I agree that with all these bailouts, there needs to be a lot more government control within the companies getting this money. It was pretty funny how they kept cutting each other off too. It was also interesting how John kept defending the Republican Party more so than the democratic. I understand their views are totally different but either way; these bills are put into motion by all. They may not vote for the bills, but they obviously didn’t do as much to fight them as they’d like to think. Very interesting interview with very good points.

  7. Heather Kowalski says:

    After listening to this interview, I was suprised at how rude they were to eachother and how they didn’t let each other finish what they were saying. We are just getting ourselves into more trouble by borrowing more and more money. Although both sides made valid points, we need to realize that our economy is in a downfall and from the looks of it, we aren’t getting out of it anytime soon!

  8. Loy Vang says:

    Listening to this interview kind of irritates me a little. Just because we are getting all this money, doesn’t really mean that the economy is going to work out the way it use to. Some of the points that were discussed during this interview were valid to some degree but paying back the money, I don’t think our future generation would be too proud of it.

  9. Betsy Beck says:

    I thought this interview was very interesting. There were a lot of times that I found it hard to follow their conversation, but overall I thought that John Sununu brought up some good points. I wasn’t fond of all the arguing that went on, and thought it was kind of rude that the interviewer keep interupting Sununu. Sununu struck me as a very optimistic and intelliegnt person. I think that the best point made in this interview was how the future genertaions will be paying off the debt we get ourselves in now.

  10. Elisabeth Callahan says:

    Like Sara pointed out, this interview took place in a political satire show and there will be jokes and at times tension and questioning. Personally Shows like The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are the political shows I’d rather watch over some of the dryer stuff out there.

    Sometimes you have to spend money to make money. This stimulus plan is designed to generate jobs and up consumer spending. I like how Stewart was “It’s as though history has starts now”. Of course we have to pay back the debt, we’ve always had to. Even when the republicans were for the tax when their was a surplus and then it turned into a deficit. And plus I’d rather spend money on fixing my country over other counties like we are currently doing in Iraq. Of course this plan wont work perfectly but it is a step towards betterment, a much needed step.

    P.s. Stewart won 🙂

  11. Brianne Coffey says:

    The Daily Show with Jon Stewart puts political and economic issues into perspective with a hilarious and less serious approach. Former Republican Senator John Sununu (NH)made an effort to let Stewart and the audience know that he advocated for getting regulation right. The example he used was Fannie & Freddie. He said that government regulation was not effective. Also he added that in 2003, he wrote a bill that called for more regulation.

    I think the topics they discussed were those that affect Americans. Such as recession, unemployment, and the areas in which the government spends money. Jon Stewart brought up a point that billions of money is being spent on Iraq, and asked why we aren’t spending money on building our own country in the form of a stimulus plan. To add to this issue, John Sununu future generations will have to pay the deficit back. He was quickly reminded that the future generations will have to pay for the Iraq war.

    I particularly liked the statement made by Stewart in regards to the government’s ideology, “corporations figure it out on their own, free markets are the best.” Yet, they ask for government financial assistance.

    I think that Stewart spoke somewhat on the behalf of American citizens and discussed topics that affect us all. This to me was not a debate, but more of a conversation just as other people have over coffee.

  12. Ashley says:

    I thought that the interview was very interesting, and both sides made some pretty good points. But like the guy said, all of this is going to be borrowed money. Now i know that people say sometimes you need to spend money to make money but look at how much money we are spending as of right now. I mean Iraq isnt the cheapest thing. The it said in the interview we might not even be the ones paying all of this money back and i dont really know if i think that is far. I didnt like the arguing of the interview it almost took away from the informative part of the whole thing.

  13. Victoria Herrmann says:

    I thought the interview was both ridiculous and it also brought up many points. I feel that the interview was kind of a joke, at least for the interviewer while the interviewee had no time to answer with responses. I feel that as far as money for the economy goes I feel that we are just digging ourselves deeper and deeper in debt and using the money for things that are not so much needed rather than other things that the US could really use.

  14. Steffany Olaciregui says:

    I thought that this interview was really intresting and it bought up a lot of important points that got me thinking what is important and what is not in the way the money is being spent? Sometimes in this interview it got a little confusing due to all the interruptions and not letting the other finish their thoughts which I didn’t like that much. Besides that this interview got me thinking is all the money that were spending in Iraq and in other places worth it? We keep borrowing money that is affecting the economy. I also think that they bought up alot of good points on how many people are being affected by the way the money is being spent. If something is not done the economy is going to get worse and affect us even more.

  15. Scott Thellefsen says:

    Yeah I agree with some of the people that posted before me because they just jump around and you really can’t get into serious convos because of the type of show it is. The points that they did get out and say were pretty interesting because they brougth to light why are we spending money in places that are not even sure what is going to go on with them in 2 years(ie. war on terrorism) I think that if this was on a more serious show, it would being light to many more people. If someone like Katie Couric or Barbara Walters did this interview it would be way different.

  16. Courtney Harries says:

    My thoughts over the entire issue/ interview with senator Sununu, is kind of interesting to the fact that both sides made very interesting key points but I do agree with some of the other posts that it was confusing at some points because of the interupptions that both parties were doing and not allowing the other party complete their statement or point that was trying to be made. Besides the fact the fact that the ecomnomy is down and who’s the blame for it, I dont agree that all the money that was being spent in the economy was very much needed. But honeslty speaking you have to spend money to make money, and it is sad to say but very true. Agreeing with Jon Stewart I think that more money should have been used toward trying to fix our own country instead of paying for a pointless war in Iraq, where everyday soliders are dying, and everyday more and more money is being wasted. Overall Both parties made good points but it seem like no one could explain why the economy is the way that it is in terms of money being spent on unneccesary things such as the last blog explained.

  17. Peter Fields says:

    I thought both sides made some legitimate points on major topics. Stewart was basically saying that 8 or 9 years ago we had a surplus but under the Bush administration we went into a deficit because of the War in Iraq and significant tax cuts. And to reverse all this we have to reverse the actions that Bush and Congress made, there being no sense in tax cuts or Iraq. Also mentioning that we should no longer have laissez-faire by not allowing markets to act independently by increasing government regulations. Sununu didn’t mention the war at all probably because he didn’t support it. He’s just saying there are already adequate laws in place but just needed to be enforced more strenuously, more in some areas like Fannie and Freddie. And he won’t support the stimulus package because he is worred that it won’t be paid off by future generations. These are challenging times, I would have to agree with Stewart more because something durastic has to be done to help the economy from weakening further. But like Sununu said, the problem is that this package will lead to serious costs for future generations.

  18. Tiffany Anderson says:

    The package worries me. We have such a huge deficit and as Sununu pointed out future generations will have to pay it back. Im just wondering how that is going to be possible with the way the economy has shaped our workforce. I think they both made very good points but I also feel that the situation with our economy is complicated and its hard to tell what the solution is to help our economy.

  19. Lindsay Pethan says:

    I thought that the point about future generations having to pay for the spending now was very interesting. As Jon said, it isn’t like all of a sudden we have to pay back the money we have been borrowing, we have had to pay it back all along. So why do we keep digging a bigger hole to climb out of? This interview could have gone longer and the points could have been discussed futher in depth. I think that would have been very interesting. Our country just seems to be spending more and more money on items that don’t directly impact the U.S. We are spending a numerous amount of money reconstructing Iraq which has indirect influences on the U.S. Many interesting points were brought up in this interview.

  20. Kelly Ross says:

    I found the interview very interesting yet also very annoying. It didnt seem like either side knew exactly what they thought should be done and didnt want to listen to what the other said. I thought it was very rude and annoying how they kept cutting each other off. I do think as one said that there should be more control of those recieving stimulis money. Apparently they were not able to make it before so why would giving them more money to throw away help.The economy is not looking good and we keep borrowing more and more money. I dont know how they are going ot fix this and both sides had ipoints i agreed with but i dont feel both sides were completly right.

  21. Brian Cacic says:

    Sununu basically said that he isn’t really for or against government regulation of the economy but he said he just wants any regulation that is made to be something helpful and not waste money. I thought it was funny when Sununu mentioned how much money we spent in Iraq instead of spending here, where it’s much needed. He said he thinks we should attack the U.S. so we could get a bunch of money. Sununu also says that it would help us out a lot if we could strongly enforce laws, but it makes it tough to enforce laws that are so vague to start with. Overall, the interview wasn’t very formal at all and it was basically a struggle to get points across because they wouldn’t let each other speak.

  22. rachel woodford says:

    One of the topics that most caught me wassaying that we are borrowing money from money we don’t have and where is this money coming from but the future generations pockets. also getting ready to bail out fanny and freddy seems crazy and he says we need to make laws and regulations for them..as for their opinions they both have many points but as usual for this show you can never really hear what their full reasioning for viewing things the way they are due to the lack of listening on the other side and points not being explained thouroughly..like many other times in our country we have had recessions and expansions so the economy is in a downward trend right now but hopefully this stimulus package will help increase it sooner than later and the regulations from the government will help spending.

  23. Susan Crans-Hunt says:

    The interview was too fast. It would have been more interesting if they were able to have slowed down and let one another finish their thoughts. Many subjects such as the economy, the war, the defecit, the stimulus, congress, etc… were discussed in just under 9 minutes. I am no way a Sununu supporter, but I do agree that this is borrowed money and I am not a supporter of it as I was not a supporter of it when before. We will all have to pay this back somehow and I don’t know how they expect us to do it when we can’t pay for what we have now…… frustrating, very frustrating. Overall, this interview wasn’t serious at all to me as I just saw both men trying to say more than the other in the hopes that they were heard. Some valid statements were made, some cheap shots were felt, and they shook hands in the end. Politics, what a lovely thing!

  24. Lindsay Ellifson says:

    I usually shy away from people arguing/interrupting each other over politics, but especially now that I’m becoming aware of more social problems (and growing up in general, ha) it’s a lot more interesting for me to pay attetion to. A great point that Jon Stewart made was that eight years ago, Republicans, they had a surplus, and we ended up with a deficit and then had a tax cut…and, his comment “we’ve spent 700 billion dollars in Iraq, why can’t we build our country? -Jon Stewart, was great also. However, John Sununu brought up another good point to think about that we’re “borrowing every single penny, this will be a big issue for our future generation” He also mentions that our future generations will be the ones paying it back, then when Jon Stewart retortes saying the future generation will also pay back the debt from the war in Iraq, and from the tax cut he mentioned prior. Both made great points; I agree with Jon Stewart that people need work during this time of recession; and also with John S. when he says we need to be thoughtful about the effects. As I mentioned, since I don’t normally pay attention to these things, although it’s relevant, it was a bit hard to understand fully, but something that I would really like to learn more about and “keep up with” in general.

  25. David Hanizeski says:

    I thought both John and John brought great points to the discussion. John Stewart who is a Democrat brings alot to the table when people are to afraid to speak their mind. I think the world needs more of this. As for the interview I think the biggest point is when regarding the republican/democrat war is “what is going to help the most?” No side knows exactly how much is needed to spend to make the economy better, or if in fact it will at all. But I think the scarriest fact is that whatever money we are spending doesn’t belong to us. Like John Stewart said, someone is going to have to pay it back, and it’s definitely not something I would like to take responsibility for.

  26. Jay Stokes says:

    First, Jon Stewart is the man. Why? Because he is inflammatory. He has fantastic points that are blunt and honest. He put John Sununu on the defensive, but Sununu still stayed strong and made good and concise points. He struck a good balance between defending himself and proving a point.
    Now, having said that, pretty much, everyone wants the same thing: get out of dept, increase jobs, make a better country and so on. HOWEVER, Democrats and republicans have different ways of getting there. It is very hard to say which is right or wrong, they are just different. That is why they need to work together because different situations require different action. Sometimes, taxes need to be raised, sometimes not. Sometimes we need a stimulus package, sometimes not. I’m not going to pretend to know when those times are… but I would hope that the leaders of our country do… if they dont, why are they are leaders?
    Specifically, we are borrowing money, and future generations will have to ‘pay’ for what we do, Monetarily and in other ways. We will have to accept that and do our best to make it easy for them.
    Everyone wants a quick fix and that is impossible. There are always (unforseen) consequences. Jon and John both understand this. But apparently congress and corporations don’t get it… they end the interview on a good note. I Hope we have people with “fire” leading our country. They need to be invested and have passion for the goings on of our world.

  27. Julia Fessler says:

    I feel that this video made several valid remarks. One being that we are spending more money ($700 billion) in Iraq and we are not using it to aid our own country. We are suffering a serious economic fall and I think that it is importnat to remember that each decision the government is making effects all of the citizens that live here. Also, I think that the effect the the decisions made now are an important indicator of what will happen in the future like Sununu stated. Sometimes I feel like the U.S. acts like there are going to be no reprocautions and it feel that all of the decisions made now could seriosuyl effect the future of this country.

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