CD207: State of Corporatism

It's 2020 and the government was actually funded before the new year! However, as always, dozens of bills hitched a ride into law attached to the government funding. In this episode, learn about some of the dingleberry laws that could effect your retirement savings, cable bills, and our partners in war. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links to contribute monthly or a lump sum via to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send payments to: Send payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send payments to: $CongressionalDish or Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to: Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes Sanctions – Russia, North Korea & Iran National Endowment for Democracy A Coup for Capitalism The “Democracies” Of Elliott Abrams Bills Articles/Documents Article: By Euractiv, January 9, 2020 Article: by Richard Barrington, MoneyRates.com, January 8, 2020 Article: Seeking Alpha, January 7, 2020 Article: By Kostis Geropoulos, New Europe, January 6, 2020 Article: By Bill Bischoff, MarketWatch, January 6, 2020 Article: By Hadjicostis, Associated Press, January 6, 2020 Article: By Michelle Singletary, The Washington Post, January 6, 2020 Article: By Tyler Grubbs, The Journal Record, January 3, 2020 Article: By George Tzogopoulos, Jerusalem Press, January 2, 2020 Article: By John Psaropoulos, Aljazeera News, January 2, 2020 Article: By Jannis Papadimitriou, DW, January 2, 2020 Article: By Carol Schmidlin, FedSmith, January 2, 2020 Article: By Samantha Fields, MarketPlace, January 1, 2020 Article: By Ron Hurtibise, Wire Services, Dallas News, January 1, 2020 Article: By Jamie P. Hopkins, Kiplinger, December 31, 2019 Article: By GCT, Greek City Times, December 30, 2019 Article: By Amanda Umpierrez, PlanSponsor, December 26, 2019 Article: By Betsy Swan, Daily Beast, December 23, 2019 Article: Hamodia, December 22, 2019 Article: Ahval, December 20, 2019 Article: Aljazeera, December 18, 2019 Article: by Darla Mercado, CNBC, December 13, 2019 Article: Army Recognition, December 13, 2019 Article: by Patricia Zengerle, Reuters, December 11, 2019 Article: By Idan Zonshine, Jerusalem Press, December 7, 2019 Article: By Jo Harper, DW, December 7, 2019 Article: By John Psaropoulos, Aljazeera News, December 5, 2019 Article: Yogonet Gaming News, December 4, 2019 Article: By John Carter, PlanSponsor, November 19, 2019 Article: Yogonet Gaming News, October 10, 2019 Article: Navy Times, October 10, 2019 Article: By Ali Kucukgocmen, Reuters, October 10, 2019 Article: by Nick Kampouris, Greek Reporter, September 15, 2019 Article: By Bryan Pietsch, Reuters, Business Insider, August 7, 2019 Article: DW, July 21, 2019 Article: by Carlotta Gall, The New York Times, July 12, 2019 Article: by Stan Garrison Haithcock, the balance, June 25, 2019 Article: Aaron Mehta and Sebastian Sprenger, Defense News, May 30, 2019 Article: by Aaron Mehta, Defense News, May 29, 2019 Article: By Marcus Weisbgerber, Defense One, May 16, 2019 Article: By Marcus Weisbgerber, Defense One, May 16, 2019 Article: By TNH Staff, The National Herald, April 24, 2019 Article: By Liz Alderman, The New York Times, March 20, 2019 Article: By Coryanne Hicks and Philip Moeller, U.S. News, February 25, 2019 Article: By Nick Turse, The Intercept, May 24, 2018 Article: By Lally Weymouth, The Washington Post, April 13, 2016 Additional Resources Atlantic Council: Board Profile: Bae Systems Client Profile: New York Life Insurance: , OpenSecrets.org Contributions Profile for 2020 Election Cycle: , OpenSecrets.org Fundraising Stats: , OpenSecrets.org Prudential Financial: , OpenSecrets.org Profile: LinkedIn Raytheon: , cruchbase USAA: , OpenSecrets.org Vanguard Group: , OpenSecrets.org Sound Clip Sources Town Hall Conversation: , Atlantic Council, January 7, 2020 Speakers: Kyriakos Mitsotakis Transcript: Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Companies such as Cisco and Pfizer are already looking to set up research centers in Greece. Kyriakos Mitsotakis: There's always this advice that other heads of state and government gave me when I was in the position. They told me, make sure you do the reforms very quickly. And then when you look at how other governments have performed, usually that is not the case. We are going against the trends. And we've also said that for 2020, we will continue with this aggressive reform agenda. Kyriakos Mitsotakis: We're really looking to strengthen our ability to import LNG. We've expanded the LNG capacity of our main LNG terminal in Revithoussa outside Athens. But we're also looking to complete a floating storage and regasification unit and FSR EU outside the port of Alexandroupoli. I consider this port, this project absolutely critical for Greece. I've given it my full personal support. It will be an additional, source, entry point for LNG, also American LNG into the European market. And of course, as you pointed out, we have also signed the East Med pipeline, which is an ambitious longterm projects that will bring gas from the Eastern Mediterranean into the European markets. This is an important project for Europe, not just for Greece. Eastern Mediterranean is the only proven source of natural gas, new proven source of natural gas, that Europe has access to. For the next 30 years, at least, natural gas is going to be the transition fuel that will allow us to move towards a carbon neutral Europe. This is also important for Greece and our energy transition. And I think the countries of the region have taken the important geopolitical decision that the best way to get this gas out of the region is for a pipeline that will go through Cyprus, Greece and end up in Italy. So this is an important statement of intent. And we're very, very happy that we signed the project in Athens a few days ago. Kyriakos Mitsotakis: You're all aware of the fact that we are trying to unblock the old airport project, the Hellinikon project. And we've really worked very, very hard with our ministers to make sure that we remove all the unnecessary bureaucratic impediments in order for this investment to take place. We have two American companies bidding for the casino license. It's important that for the first time, some serious money is going to be invested in this project by American companies. Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Started lowering our taxes, lower taxes on real estate, lowered taxes on corporation starting January 1st of this year. And I think there's a general sense in Greece that we are open for business. We're looking to aggressively attract foreign direct investment. And it's already beginning to happen. Kyriakos Mitsotakis: We will start the discussions to explore the possibility of Greece joining the F35 program. This is an important priority for me and the government. Once the F16 program is completed in 2024, we feel we will have the fiscal space. Kyriakos Mitsotakis: It is unacceptable within the context of an alliance to have one ally and member clearly provoke another ally, clearly referring to Turkey and the activities by President Erdogan. And that this is something which within the context of an alliance should not be brushed aside because the general approach of NATO has always been, Oh, okay, we have two ally members. They have their issues, let them sort it out, but I think we have a clear case to make that now the situation is rather different. Kyriakos Mitsotakis: We want to use the additional fiscal space in order to further cut taxes and use only 20% of the additional fiscal space. So 80% will be directed towards further cutting taxes, and 20% will be used towards targeted social spending to address extreme inequality and extreme poverty in Greece. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: by (found on by mevio)