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The Politics Guys

Family Separation, SCOTUS on Gerrymandering & Sales Tax, Space Force!, US Leaves Human Rights Council

The Politics Guys

Michael Baranowski

Politics, News

4.5772 Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2018

⏱️ 65 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week’s show starts with Mike and Jay discussing the bipartisan furor over family separations that have occurred as a result of the Trump administration’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ immigration policy. Mike argues that the policy is inhumane, that Donald Trump lied when he said he could do nothing about it - as evidenced by the Executive Order he signed halting the policy - and that the policy was incompetently rolled out. Jay agrees about the incompetence and the president being wrong about having his hands tied, but believes that the policy’s effects have been exaggerated by many on the left and in the media. After that, it’s a look at two important Supreme Court decisions. The first is a highly anticipated ruling on partisan gerrymandering. The Court disappointed many people by deciding not to decide, arguing that the cases weren’t ready for their review. Mike and Jay, while disagreeing on the underlying issue of partisan gerrymandering, agree that the Court made the right call here. The second case involves an ideologically unusual 5-4 split in a ruling that will allow states to require out-of-state merchants to charge sales tax. Mike agrees with the policy, but sides with the dissenters - led by Chief Justice John Roberts - on the law, agreeing that this was a matter for Congress to address, not the Court. Jay, while less pleased on policy grounds, shares Mike’s approval of the judicial restraint argued for by Roberts and the three other Justices in the minority. Next is a discussion of the Trump administration’s proposals to create a ‘Space Force’ and to combine the Departments of Education and Labor. Mike is skeptical about the need for a sixth branch of the armed forces, while Jay thinks it could be a reasonable idea given what’s sure to be the increasing military importance of space. Mike’s less sure about the Education / Labor merger, and Jay agrees that it would need to be fleshed out considerably more. Given that neither of these things can occur without Congressional approval, it seems unlikely they’ll happen any time soon, though Jay points out that it can be useful to float big ideas as trial balloons. Finally, the Guys debate the wisdom of the United States withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council. Jay points out that the Council has a massive bias against Israel and is filled with human rights abusing states. Mike agrees, but believes that the Obama approach of engaging with even very flawed international organizations in an attempt to improve them is usually a better strategy than walking away. Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-politics-guys/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the politics, guys, a place for a bipartisan, rational, and civil debate on American

0:04.9

politics and policy. I'm Michael Barronowski, a political scientist at Northern Kentucky University.

0:10.3

With me today is my regular co-host, Cleveland Area Attorney and Republican Factotum Jay Carson.

0:15.8

Good morning, Mike. How you doing, Jay? Well, we had some technical issues this morning,

0:20.4

but aside from that, I'm pretty good.

0:22.0

Yeah, it's, uh, I'm feeling a little tired, and I wonder if it's just because we had such a

0:26.8

crazy week politically.

0:28.2

So why don't we just sort of get right into it?

0:32.2

Yeah.

0:32.7

You know, so we obviously are going to lead off with the furor over thousands of family separations

0:39.3

resulting from the Trump administration's zero tolerance illegal immigration policy,

0:44.9

which was announced at the beginning of April by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

0:49.7

Now, there's an awful lot to cover here.

0:51.9

So I'm just going to try my best hit all the major elements.

0:55.1

And when I'm done, Jay, let me know if there's anything I missed.

0:57.6

I will interrupt as needed. Okay. So there was a massive outcry over family separations at the

1:03.7

border this week with both Democrats and Republicans calling for the policy to stop.

1:09.3

Now, the White House put out a, well, a variety of messages,

1:12.2

but to me the main one was that they were simply enforcing the law and that the administration's

1:17.8

hands were tied absent Congress acting to change the law. Now, there was strong bipartisan

1:24.5

pushback on this because both the Obama and the Bush administrations working

1:29.8

under the same laws didn't separate families. And critics pointed out that they could do this

...

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