there have been a number of reasons why wage growth has stagnated. one big issue that deserves to be talked about in this area is croneyism. corporate croneyism where the government picks winners and losers that is a reason certain industries for prosperred and been hurt. look at the steel and aluminum industry right now. they have been chosen as a big winner by this administration because of the steel aluminum tariffs and great for them. that s a few thousand jobs that get protected by the government. but that s terrible. it s wrong for millions of other americans who are paying higher prices for steel and aluminum when they are in the products they need and so government action has also contributed to wage stagnation over the years. not just trade. we are going to come back and talk about taxes. you and i don t see eye to eye on whether or not the tax cut thing has been great. we ll save that for a different conversation. i appreciate you having the discussions with me. coming up
house? what would the agenda look like for an emboldened, because they d be emboldened if they won republican party. according to the new york times, house republicans have deferred the messy work of planning a legislative agenda at this point. but if they were to win on tuesday, republicans would claim a conservative mandate to cut taxes, chip away at the affordable care act and shrink federal spending. something else that could land on their agenda is special counsel robert mueller s ongoing investigation into russia s 2016 election interference. i m joined by shona thomas for vice news and sam stein, politics editor for the daily beast. shona, what do you think they would do if think kept clinging to power? i think the tax cut thing is what they would want to do is make the tax cuts from the middle class term. it had a ten-year sunset period. and one of the things they kept saying you okay? to make the math work. yeah, excuse me.
joining us, senior writer at roll call nils. congratulations to you. let s talk through this tax cut thing. sort of a strange promise given that congress is not in session at all. what has the reaction been? the reaction has been lukewarm at best. i think that the folks who are republicans at the ways and means committee and congressional leadership were probably a little surprised by the president s comments over the weekend when he was in nevada. i think that the big question is going to be whether or not we even get that one-page document from the treasury department or something like that. there s no way, obviously, that there s going to be an actual legislative push before election day. but this may have been something that trump was doing, i would guess, because he was looking at the markets and was trying to
becomes a decision about the next four years? people can say i m willing to tolerate him now. i don t agree with this. they can say that. are they willing to say give him an additional four years? that s where i think the trump nushls a nus numbers and polls are leading. that s an important point. he s turning the vice on republicans. like, they were they could do the tax cut thing until he started putting children in cages. then it became hard to say tax cuts because you sound inhumane when you do that. what s really chilling is that his staff, these republicans who know better, who actually do see the issues that this is causing the country somehow want to keep him isolated from other viewpoints. the idea that he subsists in this little conservative echo bubble where nobody ever challenges him and there s no political ramifications for these insane things you re doing, as a staffer i would want him to know that there was real
brian: so because it s donald trump. yeah. guys, it doesn t go bernie says well, it goes deeper than that it doesn t go deeper than that. let me explain to you what s going on from a guy who has run for office before. the democratic base has blood from its fangs for trump. they can t stand him. they will not allow anyone on there with a d in front of their name, anyone to do anything pro-trump ever. even if it violates principles they have had in the past. look at the tax cut thing. the argument they made about the tax cut thing nancy pelosi just crumbs. what do you mean? i thought you hated tax cuts and now you want them to be bigger? complete hypocrites on this stuff. brian: we don t know how haspel is going to go. people are optimistic. sleepy joe donnelly says he would do it. joe manchin says he would do it. obviously john mccain isn t going to be there to support it. we know jeff flake is considering not doing it. and we don t know what rand paul is going to do. but they do th