Day: June 23, 2026

In Spite of GOP Lies, There’s an Easy Fix for a Social Security Shortfall in 2034

We begin with the projected Social Security shortfall of $314 billion in 2034 which anti-government Republicans have been exploiting for years manufacturing a generational war telling young Americans that the baby boomers are stealing their money and they’ll end up getting nothing in retirement. Joining us to explain the easy fixes to shore up Social Security instead of throwing trillions at the Pentagon is Dean Baker, senior economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive economic think-tank based in Washington DC. He is the author of Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer, and writes the popular economics blog, “Beat the Press” where his latest articles we discuss are “GOP Fraud Hunt Helps Prove Elon Musk Is a Total Moron” and “Social Security Trust Fund and Trump’s Outrageous Pentagon Budget.”

The MAGA Fraud Frays as the Majority Tires of Trump’s Lies, Amateurism and Incompetence

Then we look into how our 250 year old democracy has almost been taken over by a truly stupid and dangerous man who sees himself in the pantheon of history’s mass murderers beside Hilter, Stalin, Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Alexander the Great. Joining us to discuss how the MAGA fraud has frayed as the majority tires of the lies, amateurism and incompetence is Sidney Blumenthal, the former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton. He has been a national staff reporter for The Washington Post, Washington editor and staff writer for The New Yorker and his books include the bestsellers The Clinton Wars, The Rise of the Counter-Establishment and The Permanent Campaign. His latest book is All the Powers on Earth, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1856-1860, and his latest article at The Guardian we discuss is, “In Iran, Trump’s Victory claims only deepened a self-made catastrophe.”

The Rise of Right Wing Authoritarian Leaders in Latin America

Then finally we speak with Steven Levitsky, a Professor of Latin American Studies, professor of government, and director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. His books include Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War, How Democracies Die and Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, and his latest book, co-authored with Lucan Way, is Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism. We assess the rise of right wing authoritarian leaders in Colombia and Peru joining the rightward shift in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia and Panama.