It’s Casual Friday! Sam speaks with David Dayen, executive editor at the American Prospect, to break down the week in news. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Francesca Fiorentini, host of The Bitchuation Room podcast! Sam and Emma first run through updates on Hurricane Ian’s path of devastation, leaving millions of Floridians without power, the passing of a continuing resolution, Pelosi’s poison pill on the stock trading ban, and updates on the Pentagon’s funding of Ukraine. David Dayen then joins as he gets right into his recent piece breaking down the legislative process that led us to the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act, starting with the Democrats packing their entire agenda into Biden’s Build Back Better plan, only for it to get widdled and widdled down into the Manchin-endorsed IRA. They parse through the unifying factors of the policies that made it through the process, looking at how their longer pedigree and presence in Congress and consultant spheres separated them from other (but largely as pressing) policies, making it incredibly difficult to govern for the present when any potential legislation must have been building up for decades, before looking to what got left on the cutting room floor, with childcare, education, college, housing, and child poverty all remaining unaddressed. After summarizing the central elements of the IRA (climate change policy, prescription drug pricing, and general tax reform), Dayen walks through the story of these policy initiatives, with the climate policy stemming from discussions at the beginning of Manchin’s reign in the senate between him and Ron Wyden and evolving in the wake of the failures of the Waxman-Markey bill under Obama, also exploring the history behind prescription drug pricing and touching on the role of the 2020 Primaries as a rolling thinktank for much of this policy, before wrapping up with the history the wealth taxes and the importance of introducing legislation (even if it isn’t ready to pass).

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma are joined by Francesca Fiorentini of the Bitchuation Room as they dive into a new right-wing dating app where Sam can find the AnCap of his dreams, the reactions of Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, and the likes to seeing a talented classical (Black) musician dance with a flute, and the continued horror stories coming from the Right’s crackdown on reproductive rights. They also discuss the Student Debt Relief lawsuits coming from the right, the state of Putin’s failing invasion, plus, your IMs!

Check out David’s piece at the Prospect here: https://prospect.org/politics/how-policy-got-done-in-2022/

Check out the Bitchuation Room here: https://www.youtube.com/franifio

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