# Tough questions Russert didn't ask **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 9, 2004, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tough-questions-russert-didnt-ask/228279 "2004-02-09T15:25:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tough-questions-russert-didnt-ask/228279/21 "2004-02-11T13:10:10Z")
_“Mr. President, your 2004 economic report to Congress forecasts 2.6 million new jobs this year. That works out to 220,000 new jobs per month for the rest of the year, yet job creation last month was only 112,000 new jobs. Moreover, your jobs report last year forecast 2.6 million new jobs, but the reality was a net loss of 439,000 jobs. In 2002, you predicted a loss of 100,000 jobs; 1.45 million were thrown out of work that year. Given that your track record in forecasting the nation’s employment outlook, why should America have any confidence that the employment outlook will improve any time soon?”_ [http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20040210\_2328.html](http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20040210_2328.html) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tough-questions-russert-didnt-ask/228279/22 "2004-02-11T13:11:12Z")
Pardon me, last year’s forecast was only 1.7 million new jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tough-questions-russert-didnt-ask/228279/23 "2004-02-11T18:53:49Z")
Now, first, I’m wholly opposed to the elimination of the estate tax… But… Emotionally, me giving a bunch of money to my children seems like a different kind of “transfer” than me hiring a contractor to build my house… The former is intended to “keep it in the family.” It’s me giving money to my own. People dislike the “gift tax” for the same reason. It seems (emotionally) to be an intrusion that’s nobody’s business. Of course, the “emotional” rebuttal to this is that, in a land of opportunity, people ought to _earn_ their millions, not merely be given them on a silver plate. This country was founded upon a rejection of class, caste, and inherited status, and we have a visceral distrust of “aristocracy,” pointing to the Kennedy and Bush families as examples of what we don’t like. (Anyway, the gift tax doesn’t cut in until around half a million dollars or so…) Trinopus ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tough-questions-russert-didnt-ask/228279/24 "2004-02-11T19:09:09Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > What we tax is the _creation_ of wealth. Not so. If I win $5 million in the lottery, I haven’t created any wealth. I still get taxed for the transfer, in the form of income tax. And you haven’t addressed the underlying philosophical question: Why should someone who works to earn $5 million be taxed for it, while someone who inherits $5 million without working for it isn’t? Why do we punish (relatively speaking) the more productive member of society and reward what amounts to luck? ---
**Author:** ![New\_Iskander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/db5fbb/32.png) [@New\_Iskander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Iskander)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tough-questions-russert-didnt-ask/228279/25 "2004-02-11T19:15:28Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > **Is it true that the prospect of a war on Iraq was discussed in cabinet meetings months before 9/11?** Not quite true; “the prospect of a war on Iraq was discussed in cabinet meetings” years before 9/11, starting with waning days of Bush Sr., continuing all through happy days of Clinton… > [@E72521](#): > > _Mr. President, back in August of 2000, Dick Cheney said “A commander-in-chief leads the military built by those who came before him. There is little that he or his defense secretary can do to improve the force they have to deploy. It is all the work of previous administrations. Decisions made today shape the force of tomorrow…when that [first Persian Gulf] war ended, the first thing I did was to place a call to California, and say thank you President Ronald Reagan…” Have you called President Clinton to thank him for the great job his military did in Iraq? What measures are you taking today to ensure that the next administration has as strong a military as you have at your disposal?_\* This is an excellent question. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tough-questions-russert-didnt-ask/228279.md?page=1)