Author: Michael Baranowski

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This week the Republican (Jay) and the RINO (Trey) take over the show. The pair start discussing the Supreme Court’s refusal to uphold the lower court stay on the Texas abortion ban. Next they discuss the political and ideology of the Supreme Court and the recently released draft findings of the Biden Supreme Court Commission. Next, they move to foreign policy and the recent war of words between Biden and Taiwan. The pair close the show with a discussion of Manchin’s threat to be willing to go with $0 of new federal spending.

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Mike & Jay open the show with a discussion of the 5th Circuit overturning a federal district court judge and allowing Texas’ abortion law to remain in effect. Neither Mike nor Jay believe the law is constitutional according to current precedents, but Texas’ clever crafting of the law has made it more difficult for federal courts to enjoin it. Jay wonders when there will be a high profile case with a non-state defendant, which would circumvent the “you can’t sue Texas because Texas isn’t directly enforcing the law” argument. Mike points out that even if the law is eventually overturned it will have achieved in part what many pro-life advocates hoped for — making it much more difficult for women to terminate their pregnancies, at least for a time.

Next is a look at a bunch of economic data on jobs, job switching, unemployment, and inflation. Mike sees the economic news as mixed, but believes that current inflationary pressures are temporary and that it’s a good thing that workers have greater leverage to demand higher pay. Jay is less optimistic about inflation in particular, and is more willing than Mike to attribute much of what we’re seeing to overly-generous government support. Mike admits that Jay will almost certainly end up right in his 2021 year end inflation prediction (Jay predicted around 5%, Mike thought it would be closer to the 2% range), but Mike then decides to make even more predictions – that the CPI will be under 4% by mid April of 2022 and under 3% by July of 2022. Jay thinks both numbers will be higher than that.

Finally, they consider the minimum wage in light of this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics going to economist David Card, who is most well known for his work on the minimum wage. Mike points to a considerable body of research suggesting that the conventional wisdom viewing minimum wage hikes are “job killers” is, if not entirely incorrect, at least somewhat overstated. Jay isn’t as convinced, and while he agrees that there probably should be a wage floor, the federal minimum wage shouldn’t be raised. 

Mike Recommendation
The Chair (Netflix)

Jay’s Recommendation
Jay’s amicus brief to the Ohio Supreme Court on unemployment insurance benefits. (Only 12 pages – totally worth checking out to witness Jay doing his “real job” thing.)

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Trey & Mike open the show with the recently passed debt resolution keeping the government open until December 3. The two pick up where Mike & Jay left off last week on the topic of the debt ceiling and its historic origin. Further the two discuss predictions for what December may hold.

Next, they discuss the interconnected issues of Whistleblower Frances Haugen and the recent revelations about Facebook by the Wall Street Journal. Mike has a fairly pessimistic view of any change while Trey sees the possibility for reform in changes to privacy forcing business changes.

Finally, it’s time to talk about the recent Federal District Court injunction on Texas’ abortion ban. Both hosts agree the mechanism is flawed. Trey is more supportive of a broader conception of life and personhood, but Trey & Mike agree that Congress could take a larger role. In this topic they also discuss the forgotten potential importance of the 9th and 10th Amendments and Trey argues the nature of Constitutional Amendments made future one’s more difficult.

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Mike & Jay open the show with a look at the last minute continuing resolution that keeps the government going until early December, as well as prospects for a default when the debt ceiling is reached on or around October 18. Mike agrees with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that the debt ceiling should be eliminated (or at least set at one quattuordecillion dollars), whereas Jay believes it’s a useful speed-bump that might help to provide some small measure of fiscal responsibility.

Next, they discuss the fate of two massive intertwined bills – the $1 trillion infrastructure bill and the $3.5 trillion budget resolution. Mike & Jay stick with their predictions that both will eventually pass, and while Jay sees this as a sign that the progressives are in charge of the House, Mike argues that progressives will end up with a whole lot less than they hoped for.

Finally, it’s an examination of presidential approval. With President Biden’s approval rating underwater, Donald Trump has been sounding and acting more and more like a 2024 presidential hopeful. While it’s a long way until the next presidential election, right now Trump is the Republican with the best odds according to Sports Betting Dime. After Trump, it’s Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Mike Pence. 

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Today, on a very special Politics Guys,  Mike and Jay talk cancel culture, shared values, and why they started the show. Listen with the whole family. Then its the COVID update, and when is it OK for a political appointee to challenge “The Science”?  And the immigration mess — the Senate Parliamentarian reaches the conclusion that overhauling immigration policy is a policy change, and down in the west Texas town of Del Rio, 30,000 Haitian immigrants don’t have to go home, but they can’t stay here (or can they?)

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On this week’s show Trey is joined by Ken. The duo discuss COVID vaccine efficacy in light of last week’s disagreement between Kristin and Trey. The pair also talk AUKUS, the technology sharing agreement between the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. Finally, the two discuss the upcoming moderate Freedom to Vote Act and the excerpts from the upcoming book Peril.

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On this week’s show, Mike and Kristin are joined by Trey. They discuss the Biden Administration’s sweeping vaccine mandates as well as the DOJ suing Texas over its most recent abortion ban. Finally, the three hosts look back on 9/11 and 20 years of policy since – as well as the future of Afghanistan and the ramifications of Taliban leadership there.

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This week, Mike & Jay start off by discussing the Supreme Court’s refusal to halt Texas’ new abortion law, the strictest in the nation. They both agree that the law has serious constitutional problems, but Jay believes the majority got the ruling right, and that the correct course is to let things play out in the lower courts. Mike sees this as the Court’s conservatives (minus Chief Justice Roberts) allowing a blatantly unconstitutional law to go into effect.

The focus stays on Texas for a look at the state’s new voting law. Mike takes issue with a number of provisions that he believes will suppress likely Democratic votes and have little to connection to election security. Jay thinks that the law is mostly a good thing, pointing out that many of the provisions being rolled back were only put in place in response to the pandemic.

They close with a discussion of Afghanistan. Mike points out that there’s something to President Biden’s argument about how difficult it is to withdraw in the face of enemy forces, and says that some Americans would have been left behind initially in almost any withdrawal scenario. Jay doesn’t disagree, but argues that this reality wasn’t initially acknowledged by President Biden, and that he broke his promise that the US would stay in Afghanistan until all Americans who wanted out of the country got out.

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Mike and Ken open the show with a discussion of the situation in Afghanistan. Ken believes the withdrawal has gone very well all things considered, but is at least open to the argument that withdrawing might not have been the right call. Mike is similarly conflicted about withdrawing, but feels that the Biden administration has botched the withdrawal.

After that they turn to FDA approval of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine and what it might mean for future vaccine mandates. Neither Mike nor Ken things we’ll see a surge of public sector mandates unless there’s a significant upswing in the COVID death toll. Mike wonders if it might be possible for President Biden to essentially mandate vaccines in higher education by cutting federal funds (including student loan money) to institutions that don’t comply.

Following that is discussion of the  $3.5 trillion budget blueprint passed by the House. It’s being called a victory of sorts for Democratic moderates, but Ken sees it as a PR win for what he terms the “House Narcissist Caucus”. Mike emphasizes the sweeping nature of the budget proposal and his general approval of all that it seeks to do. Both Mike and Ken expect a slimmed down version of the proposal, along with the bipartisan infrastructure bill, to end up on President Biden’s desk before too long.

Finally, Mike & Ken discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling that the CDC exceeded its authority in declaring an eviction moratorium. They both disagree with the ruling, but Ken in particular sees at least some merit in the majority’s opinion.

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