The politics of President Obama's bipartisan health care summit. Revamping the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Later, Larry talks with "Shutter Island" star Mark Ruffalo.
White House health care summit and the politics of reform
The seating chart has President Obama at the center of a large square table with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. immediately to his right and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, to his left. On Thursday, President Obama convenes his bipartisan health care summit, to which he invited Democratic and Republican leaders from each chamber, plus the chairmen and top Republicans of the committees that considered the health reform bills that passed the Senate and the House. With politics so divisive in Washington, can anything positive come out of this gathering? Larry and guests talk about the politics of the health care summit and the possibility of reconciliation beyond.
Guests:
Doyle McManus, Washington Columnist, Los Angeles Times
Brad Sherman, Democratic Congressman from the San Fernando Valley's 27th congressional district
John Shadegg, Republican Congressman representing the 3rd district of Arizona
Mark Barabak, National Political Correspondent, Los Angeles Times
Tom Miller, Resident fellow at AEI
Judy Feder, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and former dean of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute
Is civil rights division back on track?
During the Bush administration, the U.S Department of Justice was plagued by partisanship, internal conflict, and accusations of inefficiency. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have charged the new Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights, Thomas Perez with the task of reinvigorating and revamping the DOJ’s civil rights division. The Perez portfolio includes fighting discriminatory lending practices, protecting Americans from discrimination in housing and employment and protecting minority voting rights.
Guest:
Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division
A chat with Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo garnered critical attention with his role in the 2000 film You Can Count on Me, and later appeared in movies including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Collateral. In Martin Scorsese's psychological thriller Shutter Island, Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio play U.S. Marshals investigating the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane. Mark Ruffalo joins Larry Mantle to talk about the film and his work.
Guest:
Mark Ruffalo, actor and a star of the Martin Scorsese film Shutter Island