This week, the 2016 race welcomed Ted Cruz to the GOP scrum after the Texas Senator made his presidential ambitions clear to a literally captive audience of Liberty University students. He's been immediately anointed as a long shot, but is he really?Meanwhile, there are other places in the world besides America. How are things going there, and what does it mean for us? We'll talk about elections in Israel, unrest in Yemen, and -- I hesitate to even say this aloud -- a potentially hopeful turn in...
Mar 27, 2015•51 min
This week, the GOP released their budget proposals and it's good news if you like massive cuts in discretionary spending and a bloated defense budget. We'll detail the broad strokes of a funding fantasia that probably won't pass and will likely lead to some new apocalyptic showdown.Meanwhile, Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock is resigning his seat, after the public disclosure of his "Downton Abbey" themed office inspired reporters to investigate the numerous ways Schock was spending taxpayer mon...
Mar 20, 2015•45 min
This week, Iranian leaders got a letter, authored by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and signed by 46 other Republican Senators, in which a clear message was sent. That message? "No one should ever take the United States of America at their word." Why did this have to happen? We're joined by HuffPost national security reporter Jessica Schulberg to figure that out.Meanwhile, letters of an unseen, electronic variety are also in the news this week, as presumptive Democratic presidential contender Hilla...
Mar 13, 2015•49 min
This week, let's talk about you. What kind of stuff you like to read on this site, and how do we provide it when Congress takes off a day early to avoid a snow storm? Senior Politics Editor Paige Lavender explains. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court took up a challenge to Obamacare. If you like your health insurance, will you get to keep it? We talked to health care reporter Jeff Young about how nine people in robes could become the Affordable Care Act's final death panel. Finally, you might have hear...
Mar 06, 2015•41 min
This week, the Republican-led House Agriculture Committee began what they termed as a "top to bottom" review of the federal food stamp program. In a surprising twist, however, the Committee's new management struck a soft and empathetic tone towards a government program they'd previously demonized.Meanwhile, President Barack Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren are teaming up on a plan to bring more security to retirees by making it harder for fly-by-night financial advisors to screw their clients ...
Feb 27, 2015•45 min
This week, the fight over President Barack Obama's immigration policies returns to the halls of Congress, with opponents of the President's executive actions threatening to cease funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Is this a smart idea? Of course not. But we'll talk about it as if it might make sense to someone.Meanwhile, potential Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush went through the ancient campaign ritual of giving a foreign policy philosophy speech, to prove that he cares ...
Feb 20, 2015•51 min
This week, America's ongoing battle with ISIS reached a new stage, specifically that stage where the President asks Congress if its okay with them that he started an ongoing battle with ISIS.Meanwhile, closer to home we have governors behaving badly -- Sam Brownback wants gays to experience workplace discrimination. Scott Walker isn't sure he has the guts to talk about middle school science. And have you heard about all the nonsense that brought about the resignation of Oregon Governor John Kitz...
Feb 13, 2015•50 min
This week, the early stages of the 2016 presidential election collided headlong with the phenomenon of vaccine denialism, with two candidates ending up in intensive care for foot-in-mouth disease. Meanwhile, the Obama budget is out, and from the looks of it, it seems the president wants to swing for the fences on infrastructure. early-childhood care, and increased federal spending. But did he notice that Congress is controlled by the GOP?Finally, this was a big week for Downton Abbey-inspired Co...
Feb 06, 2015•38 min
This week, we learned that President Barack Obama is really upset with our coverage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. So he's not gonna like what we're about to do, which is talk about the fact that the one part of his agenda Congress might sign on to is the trade deal every liberal hates.Meanwhile, the Koch brothers announced they have budgeted a cool $889 million for the 2016 elections. To put it in perspective, if you stacked $889 million one by one on a table, we would knock you o...
Jan 30, 2015•41 min
This week, President Barack Obama delivered his sixth State Of The Union Address before a joint session of Congress now completely controlled by his opposition. In that speech, the most newsworthy moment came when the President urged a focus on what he called "middle-class economics." The quick, hot take was that by doing so, Obama was opening a new round of combat with Republicans. Finally, once the pageantry of the State Of The Union had faded, Congress returned to their typical State Of Disar...
Jan 23, 2015•41 min
This week, the 2016 race was roiled by the announcement that former GOP nominee and 2012 loser Mitt Romney was, against all logic, getting his band back together to mount yet another run for the White House. This has baffled everyone, including the Huffington Post's Amanda Terkel, who joins us to form a chorus of confused noises. Elsewhere, the past few weeks has seen the age-old battle between Wall Street and Main Street re-enjoined with American taxpayers facing the prospect of the Volcker Rul...
Jan 16, 2015•42 min
This week, radical militants from a pseudo-Islamic death cult murdered twelve members of the staff of French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo in their Paris office, ending any hope we had that 2015 would be a respite from 2014's garbage and misery.Meanwhile, the new year has ushered in a new Congress -- so far bringing us the same old stories: a leadership fight with John Boehner, a rift over budget policy, and the perennial question, "Can our government govern."Finally, the 2016 race is now offici...
Jan 10, 2015•33 min
This week, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would make an effort to normalize relations with Cuba, ending a decade long policy of distance that had been surprisingly effective in doing nothing in particular. We'll talk about the new plan, and who is hopping mad about it. Meanwhile, a Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy has been cancelled, because North Korea apparently now dictates what movies we watch in our spare time? How did something so simple get so out of hand?And finall...
Dec 19, 2014•47 min
So That Happened, Episode 13: The CIA Torture Report Was A Chronicle Of Depravity And IncompetenceThis week, the Senate's report on CIA torture was released into the wild, and while the redactions were thick, it nevertheless read as a thoroughgoing chronicle of depravity and incompetence that will, at the very least, ruin hummus forever. National security reporter Ali Watkins is here to walk us through the report. Meanwhile, last week we introduced you to the CROMNIBUS -- the lame-duck budget bi...
Dec 13, 2014•45 min
This week, hard on the heels of the Ferguson grand jury decision, a grand jury in New York City returns no indictment on the police officer who choked Eric Garner to death on the streets of Staten Island. Can the cops be stopped before they kill again? Meanwhile, America's first brush with an Ebola outbreak has been resolved, but President Barack Obama wants to do more to prevent the next one. Will Congress come through, or has interest with Ebola faded now that it's no longer a sexy, midterm el...
Dec 05, 2014•35 min
This week, after several months of "will-he-or-won't he" wonderings, President Barack Obama went ahead on his own and issued new executive actions to fill the space where a comprehensive immigration reform bill should be. We'll sort this out with HuffPost immigration reporter Elise Foley.Meanwhile, the Senate came one vote shy of approving the Keystone XL pipeline -- all because Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) got the notion that willing the pipeline into existence might rescue her all-but-doomed re-...
Nov 22, 2014•41 min
So, that happened: This week, President Barack Obama announced his full-throated support for "net neutrality," a term that basically means "don't let Comcast turn the Internet into a dystopian mess" -- unless you're Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and then you think it's "Obamacare for the Internet."Speaking of, this weekend marks the beginning of another period of Obamacare enrollment. Health care reporter Jeff Young joins the podcast to tell consumers -- old and new -- what they need to know about bu...
Nov 15, 2014•48 min
So that happened: And we mean this literally just happened. The 2014 midterm elections are in the books, and for the Democratic party, it was one big coast-to-coast Red Wedding. "Drinking and Talking" host Sam Stein joins the podcast to pick through the wreckage and answer some questions: What are the next two years going to be like? What can Democrats learn from this historic waxing? And can they manage to flip this script in 2016? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 05, 2014•26 min
So that... is about to happen: Tuesday, November 4th is Election day, and we've enlisted Huff Post Pollster's own Mark Blumenthal to set the table. We'll talk about the marquee event of Election Night -- which party will end up control the Senate -- is shaping up. Mark will let us know whether and how the polls we've been paying attention to are wrong. Most importantly, we'll discuss the reasons why we may not actually know the results of the election by the time election night ends. Hosted on A...
Nov 01, 2014•45 min
