Author: Michael Baranowski

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Mike and Jay open the first episode of 2025 with a discussion of the recent terror attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas, followed by a look at the upcoming vote for Speaker of the House.

Next, they consider the life and legacy of President Jimmy Carter, looking at the awful situation Carter inherited from Ford, the thumping Carter took in losing to Reagan in 1980, and Carter’s long and impressive post-presidency.

After that, it’s a follow-up on their healthcare discussion from late last year. Mike points out that Jay was right (and Mike was wrong) about most Americans liking their health insurance. However, Mike has some issues with the question itself and makes the case that more specific questions about people’s experiences with healthcare, especially costs, paint a far less rosy picture.

They close by considering whether working for Donald Trump in his second administration is justifiable and, if so, under what conditions.

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Mike and Jay open with a discussion of the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. While they agree that Luigi Mangione’s actions were absolutely wrong, Mike makes the case for a more nuanced understanding of both Mangione and the people in charge at health insurance companies like United Healthcare. This leads to a broader discussion of American healthcare. Mike argues that the system is fundamentally flawed, whereas Jay believes that things aren’t nearly as bad as Mike makes them out to be.

Then it’s a look at one of Donald Trump’s many Day 1 promises: ending birthright citizenship. While that will be highly unlikely without a constitutional amendment, they consider what the incoming Trump administration could do to disincentivize immigrants from attempting to come to the US to give birth. Mike doesn’t even see this as a problem, but even if it is, he argues that there are far more important immigration issues to tackle. Jay makes the point that Democrats are often too focused on ‘root causes’ and that even minor disincentives to illegal immigration might be worth enacting.

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Trey and Ken start with a look at the Hunter Biden pardon. Trey forcefully argues that it didn’t have to be a terrible move for President Biden. Still, because it involves lying and taking unnecessary shots at the Justice Department, it is wrong and bad for the Democratic Party. Ken argues that the pardon was not only necessary but justified. In Ken’s view, the primary problem is that the pardon did not cover enough people and, maybe due to mental decline, was not worded well.

Next is a discussion of Trump’s nominees with a special focus on Hegseth and Kennedy. They agree Hegseth is a bad nominee but have differing takes on what may happen next. Ken believes one possibility is that it is a flytrap: that is one bad nomination to take eyes off of other nominees.

They close with a look at the oral arguments for United States v. Skrmetti. Ken drills deep into the legal issues and the potential future for the case to return not under the 14th Amendment, but under a parental rights framework. Trey suggests that we live in a post-liberal world primarily concerned about good ends for people and not minimal liberal visions of justice.

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Mike and May open with a look at where the many legal cases against Donald Trump stand as Inauguration Day approaches. They agree that there won’t be any further action on them until Trump is out of office again, with May believing there’s much more of a chance of future Democratic administrations reopening them than Mike does.

Next is a discussion of the latest tariffs Donald Trump said he’d enact on day one: 25% on both Mexico and Canada as well as an additional 10% on China. Mike believes that Trump made these promises as the opening salvo in a negotiation and won’t end up following through. May argues that Trump has a real attachment to tariffs, and that he’s likely to stick with them even if they cause markets to drop and inflation to rise.

They close with Walmart’s recently announced DEI rollback, which is part of a larger corporate trend. Mike believes that thoughtfully administered awareness training can be valuable, but that it too easily becomes counterproductive hectoring.

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Mike and Jay open with a discussion of President-Elect Trump’s nominations to this point. Mike isn’t surprised by the picks overall, as they’re about what one would expect from Donald Trump given his belief that establishment insider picks in his first term were a major impediment to his administration. Jay believes that new AG nominee Pam Bondi will likely do a better job than Gaetz ever could. They both have issues with DNI nominee Tulsi Gabbard, though Jay argues that it’s one thing to oppose her nomination, and something else entirely to claim that she’s acting on behalf of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

From there they turn to the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. They consider the plans of the department, as outlined by Musk and Ramaswamy in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, with their expectation being that not a lot of money will be saved, but that work from the office requirements and moving a number of government jobs out of the Washington DC could lead to a smaller federal workforce.

Here’s Mike’s May 2023 interview with Tulsi Gabbard

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The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

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Jay and Justin open by explaining why the election results weren’t really all that surprising – at least for those who believe that fundamentals matter more than candidates or campaign strategies. That said, Jay and Justin agree that Republicans generally fielded stronger candidates this time around than they did in the 2022 midterms, which probably helped them to maintain control of the House and retake the Senate.

Following that they turn to President-Elect Trump’s cabinet picks, from mainstream choices like Marco Rubio to more unconventional selections like Tulsi Gabbard, Matt Gaetz, and RFK Jr.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.