Aired
July 30, 2006
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John Dean; "Back-Door" Tax Cuts for the Rich; Should Everyone Have the Right to Have Kids?
John
Dean, "Conservatives Without Conscience"
P L U S :
David Cay Johnston on the IRS auditor layoffs
Elizabeth Weil on who has the right to kids
Andrew Beaujon on Christian rock
Robert Dreyfuss on Israel [Web extra!]
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John Dean gained fame as the former Nixon legal counsel who became the star witness in the Watergate prosecution. Now he's back in the spotlight with a new book that claims the Republican party is being run by extremist "conservatives without conscience." Dean tells why he's optimistic that the party can move back to the center.
Also, the IRS is slashing the number of auditors who work on gift and estate taxes -- in other words, taxes for the wealthiest Americans. Does this amount to a back-door tax cut for the rich? We talk to David Cay Johnston, the reporter who broke the story. Johnston is also the author of "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig OurTax System to Benefit the Super Rich."
Plus, fertility doctors can pick and choose the patients they choose to serve. But what happens to potential parents who are turned away by doctor after doctor -- because they're gay, because they have a disability, or for a host of other reasons? Does everyone have the right to have a baby? We talk to Elizabeth Weil, author of Mother Jones' July 2006 article on the subject. And political satirist Will Durst weighs in on Bush's veto of the stem cell research bill.
Finally, Christian music out-sold jazz, new age, and classical combinedin 2003, reports Spin magazine contributor Andrew Beaujon. But to many, genres like Christian rock are unfamiliar territory. Beaujon takes us on a tour of Christian rock, from moralistic hard rock to U2-esque "worship music." "Music is the public square of evangelical Christianity,"Beaujon writes, "a place where all these visions of Christ get ahearing."
Web extra: We check in with our regular analyst Robert Dreyfuss about the current conflict in Israel and Lebanon.
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