Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm me and Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the Doge Tour of Capitol Hill today by Musk and Ramoswamy, who are being

celebrated by Republican lawmakers as the two billionaires gleefully anticipate putting thousands

out of work and have promised to cut over $2 trillion from the federal budget.

Since roughly two-thirds of the total budget is mandatory,

that includes programs like Social Security and Medicare,

the real targets of what is left of the Social Security net.

As Ramoswami recently promised at Mar-a-Lago that, quote, doesn't bring a chisel, he brings a chainsaw,

and we're going to be taking it to that bureaucracy. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Joining us is Eric Kingston, a professor of social work at Sariqiz University and the founding

co-director of Social Security Works, an organization which launched

and staffs the Strength and Social Security Coalition, which he co-chairs. He served as a policy

advisor to two presidential commissions, the 1988, 82-83 National Commission on Social Security

Reform and the 1994 Bipartisan Commission on

Entitlement and Tax Reform and also served on the Advisory Committee to the Social Security

Administration's transition team.

Then we'll discuss the case made in the new book Homeland, The War on Terror in American

life, that we have lived for 23 years in the shadow

of the burning Twin Towers, and that almost no aspect of American life, economic, social,

political, cultural remains untouched by the collective trauma of 9-11 and our responses to it.

Joining us is Richard Beck, a writer at N Plus One magazine based in New York.

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