May 24 - Trump's Amateurish and Mathematically Absurd Budget; What Happened to Bipartisan Outrage at Russian Interference in Our Election?; The Pope Tries to Influence Trump

Full Program

Part 1

We will begin with the Trump budget that has both conservative and liberal economists scratching their heads in disbelief at the amateurism and mathematical absurdity of what the White House Director of the OMB, former Congressman Mulvaney, presented. Jacob Leibenluft, a senior advisor at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who previously worked at the National Economic Council at the White House, joins us to discuss the double counting of $2 trillion in additional revenues which are in themselves dubious and wishful thinking based on the ideological pipe dream that cutting taxes on the wealthy and corporations will magically spur economic growth to make up for the loss in tax revenues for the Treasury. We also analyze the extent to which the entire budget punishes the poor in order to further reward the already rich, and address it in terms of the guns versus butter paradigm as more guns are foisted on the pork-bloated Pentagon while butter is rationed to those who can prove they are looking for work.   

Part 2

Then we look into yesterday’s testimony by the former CIA Director John Brennan in which he recounted how he had warned his counterpart Alexander Bortnikov the head of Russia’s FSB that “American voters would be outraged by any Russian attempt to interfere in the election”. Mark Lowenthal, the President of the Intelligence and Security Academy who served as Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production and Vice Chairman for Evaluation at the National Intelligence Council, joins us to discuss what happened to bipartisanship when it comes to a foreign adversary attacking the very foundation of American democracy itself.

Part 3

Then finally we assess President Trump’s visit with Pope Francis in the Vatican at which his daughter and wife were in attendance and where at the end, the Pope expressed concern to Melania Trump about her husband’s eating habits and expansive girth. Tiziana Dearing, a professor of social work at Boston College and the former head of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Boston joins us to discuss the extent to which the Pope was able to influence Trump to change his views and policies on climate change and immigration.