Wonky Town: Recent Episodes
The Ricochet Audio Network
"Wonky Town" provides up-to-date commentary on the intersection of politics, policy, and economics from National Review's Reihan Salam and Patrick Brennan. Can Ted Cruz really abolish the IRS? What are the Republican alternatives to Obamacare? Where is the economy headed—will it boost Republicans or Democrats next year? As the 2016 campaign takes off, Wonky Town will be conservatives' home for analysis of these kinds of questions and more.
Patrick and Reihan welcome Hillary Clinton and her ideas, or lack thereof, to Wonkytown this week. Her major economic policy speech on Monday, Reihan points out, did tackle a crucial, politically important issue — stagnant wages. But her prescriptions for the problem — new protections for the ailing organized-labor movement, for instance — seem to be especially tailored for her political purposes.
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There’s plenty of policy news to tackle this week: First, what to make of the Supreme Court case about Obamacare subsidies, King v. Burwell? Patrick maintains his and Reihan’s intern wrote the definitive take back when it was called Halbig, but Reihan explains how the case reveals a lot about Republicans’ approach to health care as an issue. They then turn to the congressional trade debate...
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Pat and Reihan look at the most interesting candidate on the Democratic side of the 2016 race: Bernie Sanders. Was it weird that he left racial and LGBT issues out of his announcement last week on the shores of Lake Champlain? Will his plans to shift Democratic policy way to the left — a 90 percent top tax rate, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, Medicare-for-all — just mean sham pain for the champagne...
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This week, Reihan and Patrick touch on two extremes of the policy world: what’s going on with Republican primary contenders, and a particularly insane urban-planning idea out in San Francisco. Patrick laments that Mike Huckabee has been offering some nonsense about Social Security, Medicare, and disability insurance; Reihan points out that Marco Rubio has been better on such topics and explains...
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Reihan and Patrick look at questions surrounding the riots in Baltimore this week: Just how ridiculous was the president’s suggestion that Republicans in Congress are blocking policies that could help the situation? What can conservatives bring to the discussion about inner cities, criminal justice, and policing? It turns out there may not be as much of a bipartisan consensus about some criminal...
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This week in Wonky Town, Reihan Salam and Patrick Brennan discuss Marco Rubio, who announced that he’s running for president on Monday. National Review is a big fan of Rubio in large part because he has done the most serious policy work out of the potential 2016 field: He’s released plans on health care, taxes, and more. Reihan and Patrick discuss whether Rubio’s policies, especially his tax plans...
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Welcome to our newest Ricochet/National Review podcast, Wonky Town, featuring up-to-date commentary on the intersection of politics, policy, and economics from National Review’s Reihan Salam and Patrick Brennan. Can Ted Cruz really abolish the IRS? What are the Republican alternatives to Obamacare? Where is the economy headed—will it boost Republicans or Democrats next year? As the 2016 campaign...
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