[speaker001:] um go ahead tell me what you think do we get our money's worth
[speaker002:] hey listen if I had my way I wouldn't pay my taxes not with the not with some of the things that I hear that our tax money is going for some ludicrous things
[speaker001:] yeah did you see Sixty Minutes last night
[speaker002:] no I did not I was
[speaker001:] well they did a thing on the the thirty five billion dollars we waste every year just on storing stuff for the military we don't need and uh
[speaker002:] well how does this grab you how does this grab you
[speaker001:] it's staggering
[speaker002:] um this I I mean I'm I'm a lady but this I heard this on a Christian program and it was uh about the NEA and that's the National Endowment for Arts and they fund they funded this thing this act on a stage and did a study on it between two lesbians and two homosexuals and wrote a report about that with our money
[speaker001:] well there are a lot of things that people I think generally
[speaker002:] and then it just frosts me terribly
[speaker001:] well I think it's interesting to look at um where the money goes and it goes a lot of places where it probably ought not go and and I don't think generally I think what's interesting is
[speaker002:] absolutely
[speaker001:] that we probably represent the majority of people in this country in terms of their feelings about the government and how it serves us given the extraordinarily large sum of money the government has to operate with
[speaker002:] I believe that's true yes
[speaker001:] and that what I think is gonna be really interesting is what we do about it I mean we are gonna have to change the people who represent us
[speaker002:] that's correct
[speaker001:] I mean and I think it's gonna be real interesting to see and and then force upon them uh
[speaker002:] heavy involvement from the public
[speaker001:] yeah right that's your I think that's the only thing that's gonna change it and
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah heavy involvement from the public
[speaker001:] our our anger is gonna have to to give rise to to more activity on our part
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] um I've I've said for years that there's full employment for the politically active and in our society uh there's very little full employment most people in this country are getting worse off not better off
[speaker002:] absolutely
[speaker001:] eighty percent of the public according to Bill Moyer's uh recent uh piece for uh Public Broadcasting which by the way is a very good use of government money I think PBS is wonderful but this special focused on the fact that eighty percent of the people in this country are are seeing their real incomes and thus standards of living decline and twenty percent are seeing theirs improve that's not a formula for a better society
[speaker002:] no it is not it's lopsided very much so
[speaker001:] and the government really plays a role in this
[speaker002:] uh-huh that's right they pull the strings
[speaker001:] I mean well well they are the people whose strings are pulled and by I guess powerful interest
[speaker002:] right the yeah
[speaker001:] you know and it's really interesting to see how that affects people because essentially more and more people in this country are not likely to revolt in the way that people used to think of of the voter revolting but people are pretty much getting the picture that some people get taken care of and others don't and they think it's unfair and when they recognize it's their tax money they're gonna do more about it I think I'll tell you one quick uh one thing very interesting CBS after the State of the Union address is gonna open up a telephone line an eight hundred number and people can call in and say what they think about what's going on in this country they expect
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] opening it for one hour that they'll get three hundred thousand telephone calls
[speaker002:] I'm sure they will
[speaker001:] and I've thought for years it would make a lot of sense to put create an eight hundred number for voters to call and and vent their frustration with government
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] like one eight hundred capitol or something like that you know you just a number you could call from anywhere anytime I think that's coming and I think once once people really start to communicate how they feel things are going to change until then
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I think you know it's gonna be really painful so the question is how soon are we gonna start to get our money's worth and as you said it's how soon we get involved and I think we need to create mechanisms to allow us to get involved like allowing us to call a toll free number and say hey look do it this way not that way or I like this or I don't like that or this is how I feel about your spending my money on art that I don't think is art
[speaker002:] yes I understand that but hopefully that the people that are listening to what our comments are take some action on it
[speaker001:] well that's the good thing about what is happening because I think more and more the news media which takes a heck of a beating and and deserves some of it is telling us more you know about the problems so the more we communicate hey look we want a change here because you know as it turns out we've wasted a tremendous amount of money on our defense spending in this country
[speaker002:] oh absolutely
[speaker001:] over a very long period of time
[speaker002:] right absolutely
[speaker001:] um and uh
[speaker002:] we only see the tip of the iceberg it's only you know there's so much
[speaker001:] right yeah
[speaker002:] of it going on that it would really you know uh set us into a deeper depression if we knew the whole picture
[speaker001:] well you may be right what I think is really gonna be interesting is to see how uh we as a society deal with it and I and I think it is what you say it's it's a