Debate over cost of releasing Gitmo detainees

Prisoner freed in Bergdahl swap caught trying to reconnect with Taliban

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FREED GITMO DETAINEE IN BERGDAHL SWAP CAUGHT TRYING TO RECONNECT WITH TALIBAN

Gary B Smith: There is precedent for this the president is an ideologue. When you talk about closing Guantanamo bay that is a problem. These five prisoners released reached out to the Taliban and will be on the battlefield when the year is up in Qatar. When prisoners were released from there that created the leadership of isis. What harm has isis caused? What are you going to do with the prisoners down there? What if you capture more prisoners on the battlefield? I don't think Guantanamo bay is the best place to have this prison? There is not a supermax prison to help local communities. There is no plan here. It's another 30,000 proof idea. This one can cost American lives.

Emily Tisch Sussman: First of all, there is a supermax facility in Colorado that is currently housing one of the transferred prisoners from Guantanamo, so we actually do have a facility. The reason they are not being transferred because transfers are being stopped by republicans in congress who didn't want them to go to a full trial. The full trial is part of the principle that makes this country great. We don't just lock people up all the time. The biggest problem with Guantanamo and keeping it open, it is a recruitment tool for terrorists in the Middle East. The fact that America continues to operate this facility is one of the biggest recruitment tools they have. Don't take my word for it. That came from the first overseeing general from the facility itself. It must be closed. People need to be working with the president and put combat in terrorism first.

Tracy Byrnes: I don't know what we thought these guys were going to do when they got out. While being detained, did they have a come to Jesus moment and come out and bake cookies and help the poor? They are criminals. They oversaw mass killings. These people should not be let go at all, if you ask me. We should arrest people no questions asked if they harm Americans. They are supposed to be being watched. Obviously they are not because they are going back preparing for the second they have freedom they are out back to their own ways. This went wrong. This shouldn't have happened the way it did.

Jonas Max Ferris: I don't want to sound like an attorney. When we let anybody out of jail, some will do more crimes. If we never let people out of jail, we would all be safer. At some point you've got to let people out of prison. Now there are other things to do, track them, know who they are calling, put chips in them. I don't know what. There's got to be something better than clocking away $3 million a year per person in the Caribbean.

Gary B Smith: I want to take issue with one thing Jonas said. That's not the way America is. I think we have the highest incarceration percentage of any country out there. Not to sound like an ACLU lawyer, but we have a lot of people in prison. At some point we've got to let them out. Your point is when prisoners get let out, are they going to create more terrorist action. Is that harmful than the other guy let out of a normal prison who just goes and robs a liquor store? Of course there is. There are two issues. One, closing the Gitmo issue. The other is releasing the prisoners. In that respect I kind of agree with Emily and john, I suppose. I don't think these prisoners should be released, but I don't think we should have Gitmo. I think we can move them to a maximum security prison whether; we build one or use an existing one here. I come at it purely from economics. It costs each prisoner about $2.6 Million a year. That's a lot of money. In a maximum prison security it's only $70,000 a year. Economics, let's close Gitmo and move the prisoners to some facility that maybe even creates jobs and leave more here. I do think majority should remain locked up.

PRES PUSHING MORE GOV'T SPENDING WITH NATION'S DEBT AT $18 TRILLION & COUNTING

Gary B Smith: No, we cannot afford any more years of this kind of spending. This kind of government for a variety of reasons. One, I take issue with the freebie part. There is nothing free in government. This doesn't magically create two extra years of community college if we want to do something like that, the money's got to come from the taxpayers. That's my number one issue. Number two issue, I love how all these things are like Obama is Willie Wonka passing out golden tickets. There are no facts or studies saying an extra two years or free two years of community college is going to help anyone and benefit society. Pay for four years of college? Oh, my gosh, we can't afford that. Four years of college is not right for everyone. All these ideas are dumb and don't make economic sense. If you can spread the goodwill around with freebies, it's great.

Emily Tisch Sussman : What the president is doing is drawing a line in the sand. He is saying I tried to come to you. I've come to bring both sides together and work together. It is not working. I am drawing a line in the sand saying America needs to be built out from the middle. It has not been working the policies have not been working. No you we need to be forward looking. In that bill is working on infrastructure. We have crumbling infrastructure people are seeing every day, but we have not been taking the responsibility to move it forward. The president is saying we have to be forward-looking. Middle class out first

Tracy Byrnes: And whose policies were they of the last couple of years? The president himself. All he is trying to do is set the democratic party up to be the party of we give it all away. Anything you want is yours. Vote for us because we'll struggle in the polls. They are attempting to set the republican party up as the evil, we'll take it from you and keep it a notch their party. This budget is not going to pass. There is going to be so much fight and they'll waste more time because this country needs them to get to work. All we are going to do is butt heads on a budget that is going to go nowhere because the suggestions are useless.

John Layfield: The reason the president draws a line in the sand is because it's he's why I to scratch out and easy to erase. With Syria he drew that hard line in the sand. Wait, let's erase that line. This is all politics. The latest GDP number came in 2.6. One reason it was down because government spending had slowed. The president does not want to see that. He wants to see his legacy. This is what this is all about. You cut out this $78 billion he wants to put in, that's going to cost some GDP and cost some jobs, whether we need it or not doesn't matter. It will help the economy short term. Future has to pay forth 20. 21 Back to running $3 billion deficit.

Jonas Max Ferris: To be fair, this president likes to pay for stuff. He doesn't have no plan. He always has tax revenue piece tied to this health care thing. If he had to do it by executive order, he would tighten the thumb screws on the rich to pay for this that doesn't mean it's good to do that. I'm saying that's how it would get paid for. In general, we don't need spending to go up faster than inflation every year. Specific to this community college thing, that may not cost taxpayers money because if these same kids are currently borrowing money to go to questionable for-profit schools and will not pay back on their loan and now will get a free community college ride, that may not cost anybody anything. This is stuff we would do if you vote democrat in two years.

AZ HEALTH OFFICIALS TRYING TO CONTAIN MEASLES OUTBREAK AHEAD OF SUPER BOWL

Tracy Byrnes : Vaccinate these kids. Don't let them in school until they are. There was a study in 2014 of cases that broke out in 2011. 107 Cases cost anywhere from $2.7 to $5.3 Million back in 2011. You know it's more today. The vaccine works. Let people have it. The whole autism thing I think is debunked between Jenny McCarthy and the doctor from Austin, Texas.

Emily Tisch Sussman: Up until now I think this felt like a very personal decision for a lot of people because there wasn't or didn't feel like there was a real risk of outbreak. This is one of those interesting places where we come full circle politically right? They felt like it was a very personal choice for them. I guess a lot of people are calculating this differently now they see there are real risks of this spreading.

John Layfield: I didn't feel comfortable wearing a seat belt when the law was first put into form years ago. Now I wouldn't think about it. Polio was supposed to be a trillion dollar disease. It's been eradicated through prevention. If we can force people to drive the speed limit we can force people to get health insurance, we can force people to get these vaccinations if they work and they're safe. This is massive amount of money saved through prevention.

Jonas Max Ferris: The speed limit, you can't say because of my faith I'm allowed to speed. Okay. Your religion says you can speed. I can't believe the federal government didn't step over these years ago. Obama said you have to pay a fine if you don't get health insurance. That's legal. And the federal government should say you have to get vaccines. This is ridiculous parents and locals get to make these decisions. This is everybody's health.

Gary B Smith: Emily made a good point about libertarians having the right to choose. I, in this case, think the government should do the choosing. I put one of the main responsibilities as national defense. Protecting ourselves from enemies from viruses, whatever. This can be a deadly virus, measles. I think the government, if people can't afford to pay for vaccinations, which they should be mandatory as John said, I think the government should step in. This is the only time I might say the government should pay for it. I think prevention here and it falls under that whole dome of protecting our shores, if you will. This is where the government should act.

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