It's the Brian Lerishow on WNYC, good morning, everyone.

You've been hearing in today's news, the general summaries and highlight segments from

last night's Republican debate with the presidential hopefuls minus a certain 91 felony indictment

guy, all good, that general coverage is important, but we're going to do something different

and more specific with the policy focus we try to emphasize here, with Donald Trump

meeting with auto workers last night instead of attending the debate, nonunion auto workers

apparently, and with President Biden walking a UAW picket line this week, and the first

few questions at the debate last night about the strike and income inequality, we will

focus this segment on the question, who's really supporting the auto workers on their

demands and blue collar economics in general.

To set this up, I'll play a few clips, then we'll talk to Jeff Stein, White House Economics

reporter for the Washington Post, and we'll take your calls.

And I only pulled one response from the debate on the topic, because all seven candidates

there basically said their own versions of the same thing.

Here's the exchange we'll play as representative.

Near the beginning of the debate, Fox News moderators, Stuart Varnie asked Mike Pence this legit

question.

Together, the CEOs of General Motors Ford and Stellantis make 336 times the number of

rank and the number of rank and file workers.

That's just part of a wide income inequality trend in the country.

The richest 1% now controls one fifth of all income.

Vice President Pence, last week you said you sighed with American workers, but you also

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