Charlie Rose

OldGringo  01/20/2009 11:44 PM Report

It is such hypocrisy for Mr.WalMart to come in to talk about problems with America and health care when it is his company with their methods and monopolistic ways that have actually closed a bunch small towns in America.

Ask RubberMaid, one of the better American companies, until Walmart put the screws to Rubbermaid and the Ohio community that depended on Rubbermaid.

Charlie Rose lets this giant slime ball get away with showing up telling lies and does not challenge him.... oh but I guess Charlie wants to have a little tee time discussion rather than a real fact finding interview.

chrisbak  01/19/2009 11:00 PM Report

This was an interesting interview although it meanders a bit. Lee Scott feels that not solving our energy problem and not solving our healthcare problems pose the greatest risks to the country. For example he said that when people had to deal with gasoline at $4 per gallon it caused them to postponed paying off credit card bills or their mortgage, and he said whatever the government does in the healthcare area it couldn’t be much worse than what we have now.

He also said the government must get more involved in improving education and solving illegal immigration. Also Scott said he struggled with opposition to Wal-Mart when he first became CEO, and that “the board was leading him.” He apologized for not having any experience outside Wal-Mart that may helped him more quickly understand the opposition Wal-Mart faced in certain parts of the country. However he said he subsequently came to realize that Wal-Mart could become more than he had realized, through better architecture etc.

Grouchy_Citizen  01/18/2009 05:00 PM Report

Mr. Wal Mart is operating on one half truth during this interview. As an uninsured person, I rarely seek any medical treatment whatever unless I am in extreme agony. There are many things that I would like to have taken care of, medically speaking, but I do not seek treatment for these conditons, because of the extreme cost of medical treatment of any kind, from Dentistry to Dermatology. Most often, I just learn to live with these conditons. When I do seek treatment, I try to pay for it as best as I can. Therefore, I do not believe it is fair to blame me, or the many like me, for the excessive medical costs he is talking about. We may be a factor, but only a fractional one.

REMant  01/15/2009 02:12 PM Report

I'm sorry I can't find anything nice to say about Walmart no matter the shape or color. They are opposed to everything social and economic this country needs. They buy the cheapest and shoddiest items they can find, like Home Depot, have always underpaid and mistreated their employees, and extorted special considerations from localities and suppliers. And on top of all of that their prices are rarely the lowest, or the best values. I have no doubt that they really believe themselves, like the Bush admin, Zionists and Wall St, to be among God's anointed. It was I suppose bound to happen as the South came of age, but let us hope it is just a passing phase. For that reason I am somewhat heartened by his advocacy of universal healthcare, tho, of course, it would be a big boon to the company, nor do I disagree with avoiding throwing money at our current problems, tho, of course avoiding govt expenditure of any kind is a typical position in those parts and no doubt that of the family.

doodahdaze  01/15/2009 01:38 PM Report

smarsh, what did you expect Charlie to do?.

That giant squid had some big scary tentacles.

And those eyes!

Did you see those eyes?!

smarsh  01/15/2009 01:28 PM Report

I'm always concerned about the spin... Charlie doesn't challenge the statements people like Scott make nearly enough. Take his claim that 92% (I believe that's his number) of WM employees "have health insurance". That implies that they get the insurance through WM. But I think there's plenty of evidence out there that WM has lots of employee troubles including issues with provision of health care. My guess is that if it's even a real number, it doesn't account for a good percentage of employees getting coverage from their spouse's plan.

Charlie is tops, but the show would be far better if he would not accept sooooooo much at face value.