More Budget Cuts, More Fake News

This week on So That Happened: while President Donald Trump was away on foreign business, the wider world got a look at the latest White House budget proposals and the experience was like staring into a moral void. Broadly targeted for elimination: just about anything that offers assistance to the poor and vulnerable. Cashing in big time: rich income earners. There are education cuts that could decimate profitable research, new burdens on food stamp providers that could result in fewer in the market. Joining us to marvel at the pure draconian nature of it all is Alexis Goldstein from Americans for Financial Reform.

Meanwhile, the murder of Seth Rich a young DC resident and Democratic National Committee staffer was a tragedy for those who knew him. But the internet’s conspiracy swamps and right wing media outlets have teamed up to further traumatize Rich’s family and friends. It’s weaponized fake news, and it’s perfectly emblematic of the surreal world that Donald Trump has both ushered in and continues to maintain.

Finally, four years ago, Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” took the world by storm, a deeply researched book on the history of wealth inequality that managed to jump beyond an academic audience and become a popular best-seller.  Now, a new book titled “After Piketty: The Agenda For Economics and Inequality” has arrived, bringing together a wide group of economists and social scientists to try to assess the impact Piketty’s book has had since it hit the shelves. Joining us to give us a taste is one of the editors of “After Piketty,” Marshall Steinbaum.

“So That Happened” is hosted by Jason Linkins, Zach Carter and Arthur Delaney and produced by Zach Young. Send us an email at sothathappened@huffingtonpost.com .

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