PBS高端访谈:努涅斯备忘录掩盖了哪些经济和政治问题（在线收听）

MEGAN THOMPSON: While the release of the GOP House Intelligence Committee memo was the focus in Washington last week there are other significant political and economic issues worth paying attention to. Joining me from Santa Barbara, California to discuss them is NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Jeff Greenfield. Jeff, thank you as always for being here. So you have said that watching this Russia story unfold is to you like watching the film Groundhog Day where the main character keeps reliving the same day over and over again. Why?

JEFF GREENFIELD: Because for nine months it's been one central reality. And that is where the power lies with the Republicans. We talked a lot about Watergate. Well imagine during Watergate the Republicans ran the House and the Senate which meant they ran the investigations. Imagine the Republican party was united behind President Nixon and was prepared to say whoever is accusing him of misconduct or the Chris campaign is even guilty of treason which is a word we've heard. And imagine an alternate cable news network that was hammering that message home. "Don't believe the mainstream media." That is the central message. Nine months ago, six months ago and today whatever they tell you, whatever Mueller might find out don't believe it. And as long as the Republicans retain control of the Congress I think Trump is essentially invulnerable.

MEGAN THOMPSON: So are we at all paying attention to Russia this week? You say there was a big economic story that we may have missed. Tell us about it.

JEFF GREENFIELD: Well it's like Trump is this large celestial object with all this gravitational pull toward him. But meanwhile the Treasury Department has told us it wants about $440 billion more in borrowing power to cover next year's deficit which could be somewhere between three quarters of a trillion and a trillion dollars. Now I'm old enough to remember when that issue the explosion of the debt deficit spending was a big deal especially among Republicans who warned that we were spending ourselves into bankruptcy and now it's kind of like Emily Litella as their spokesperson – remember from Saturday Night Live? "Never mind!" And that's part of what I think has gone by the boards with this obsession with Russia and the memo.

MEGAN THOMPSON: You say there is also a public health story that's not getting enough attention.

JEFF GREENFIELD: This is one which I think should set alarm bells off. The Centers for Disease Control has operations in more than 35 countries trying to work with men with nations to ward off possible epidemics. They're running out of money. And if the money isn't given to them they're going to have to start rolling back all of these efforts including like in the Congo – eighth Ebola outbreak. China where there's a bird flu problem and I'm just thinking that you know I would hate to be down the road in a few years with people asking the media why didn't you tell us about what was going on with our economic health? How come we didn't know about the possibility of pandemics breaking out because we didn't have the resources to stop them? And it's one of the consequences I think of this focus. I understand the Russia story is very important. But there are other stories and we really can't be in a position where the media is obsessed with just one.

MEGAN THOMPSON: All right. Jeff Greenfield, great to talk to you as always. Thank you.

JEFF GREENFIELD: Thank you Megan.

梅甘·汤普森：虽然上周华盛顿的焦点是GOP众议院情报委员会备忘录的公布，但值得关注的还有一些其他重大政治和经济问题。加利福尼亚州圣巴巴拉周末特约记者杰夫·格林菲尔德加入节目。杰夫，谢谢你一如既往地参与。那么你说，看着俄罗斯事件慢慢揭露出来，对你来说就像是看电影《土拨鼠之日》一样，影片中的主角总是一遍遍不断重温那同一天。为什么呢？

杰夫·格林菲尔德：因为这九个月大家都围绕着一个核心真相。这正是共和党的权力所在。关于水门事件，我们谈了很多。想象一下水门事件期间，共和党掌控着参众两院，这意味着他们掌控着调查。想象一下，在尼克松总统身后的共和党人团结一致，并准备说控告总统行为不端或克里斯竞选的人甚至犯有叛国罪，这是我们听到的词。想象一下，另一个交替有线新闻网将这条消息打击的无处遁形。"不要相信主流媒体"，这就是核心内容。九个月前，六个月前和今天，不管他们告诉你什么，不管缪勒发现什么，都不要相信。只要共和党保留对国会的控制权，我认为特朗普本质上是无懈可击的。

梅甘·汤普森：那么，我们这个星期是否都在关注俄罗斯问题呢？你说我们可能错过了一个重大的经济问题。请告诉我们吧。

杰夫·格林菲尔德：嗯，就好像特朗普是一个巨大的天体，他有万有引力。但与此同时，财政部告诉我们，它希望获得大约4400亿美元的借贷能力，来弥补明年的赤字，赤字金额可能介于7500亿美元到1万亿美元之间。现在我年龄足够大，能记得债务赤字爆炸是一个大问题，尤其共和党人警告说，我们花销之大正让我们走向破产。现在有点像发言人艾米丽·丽塔勒，记得《周六夜现场》吧？“没关系！”现在大家都沉迷于俄罗斯和备忘录丑闻（报道），这些问题大家不太关注。

梅甘·汤普森：你说还有一个公共健康问题没有得到足够重视。

杰夫·格林菲尔德：我认为应该敲响警钟。疾病控制中心的业务遍布35个国家以上，他们试图与人们，与国家合作，以预防可能发生的流行病。他们的钱快用完了。如果不给他们钱，他们此前所有这些努力将付诸东流，包括在刚果——第八次埃博拉疫情爆发。中国有禽流感的问题，我只是想，你知道我不想几年过去后，再向媒体发问，你（当时）为什么不告诉我们，我们的经济健康状况怎么了？为什么我们对大流行病爆发的可能性一无所知，因为我们无力阻止他们？我认为这是这个焦点问题的后果之一。我知道俄罗斯问题很重要。但我们还有其他的事，我们的媒体不能驻足不前，不能只关注一件事。

梅甘·汤普森：好的。杰夫·格林菲尔德，今天的访谈精彩如旧。谢谢你。

杰夫·格林菲尔德：谢谢你，梅甘。