Brian Sullivan

Nation magazine writer Ari Berman carped on today's Martin Bashir program on MSNBC that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) wants to take America back into "a new Gilded Age,"  an "era of the robber barons where the top one percent" would control the nation's wealth.

Immediately after that segment, Bashir turned to CNBC's Brian Sullivan for the day's "CNBC Market Wrap," a look looking at how the nation's stock exchanges performed today.

After discussing the "boring" but positive day on Wall Street, Sullivan added in closing that he would like to come on Bashir's program to debate Berman some time (MP3 audio here; video embedded below):

Americans have been so bombarded with the word "crisis," it appears to have lost all meaning. But according to a distinguished scholar at the Cato Institute, there is a real, serious crisis pending in America's addiction to entitlement programs, government-dependence, and imaginary "rights" to live off future generations.

"You will have to look into the future, do the responsible thing, and begin moving toward a system of personal accounts. That is the only long-term solution," said Jose Pinera of America's social security and pension system.

Pinera knows what he's talking about - he's the architect of social security reform in Chile. Introducing a recent interview with Pinera, Fox Business Network's Brian Sullivan said, "Thirty years ago, the social security system of Chile was broke, flat-busted.  Entitlement reform was just destroying the nation's finances. In walks the Harvard-educated Jose Pinera. He pushed through by force of will a plan to privatize their entire entitlement system and social security - there is no government social security in Chile now - and everybody has a private account."

"I think it's a weaker deal than he thinks," MRC's Rich Noyes told Fox Business Network's Brian Sullivan, referring to President Obama's hopes for passage of the stimulus package. Noyes appeared on Fox Business Network's "Cavuto on Business" program shortly after 6:30 p.m. EST to discuss President Obama's campaigning for his stimulus package.

While Obama campaigned on the vague notion of "change," now that he's president, the stimulus bills under consideration have "fairly weak public support" compared to his personal approval ratings, Noyes noted. The NewsBusters senior editor cited a CBS News poll -- which went unreported that network's airwaves -- that found as Noyes put it, "a majority for the stimulus, but it's weak majority.":

NOYES: Sixty-two percent think the best thing about it would be the tax cuts. Only 16 percent are in favor of the government spending as being able to be helpful. This is something where the public is against massive spending because they're cutting back everywhere, they see business cutting back everywhere. That's his problem, his next phase in this political program is going to be another big spending program to deal with the banks.