After a 42-day standoff that led to a big part of the federal government being shut down and more than 1.2 million workers not getting paid, the Democratic Party broke ranks and caved into Donald Trump without obtaining their key demand, which was to prevent a huge increase in the

cost of monthly health care premiums for millions of people in the United States.

We need a new system.

We need a new society.

We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago,

but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. We are excited to have Professor Richard Wolfe join us again for our regular weekly segment where we talk about the biggest

stories related to the economy, the state of the working class, and the crimes of big business.

I'm your host, Brian Becker. The Socialist Program brings you content several days a week.

Thanks to the support of our patrons at patreon.com forward slash the socialist program.

We appreciate all of your support and encourage you to become a patron today if you enjoy listening to the show.

Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work.

He's the author of many books, including Understanding Capitalism, which is available at

Democracy at Work.Info. Professor Wolfe, welcome back.

Thank you very much, Brian. Glad to be here.

Well, very glad to talk with you again, Richard. I have to say the series, the three-part

series we've done during the past month about socialism,

what it is, the Mamdani campaign. It's elicited a very big support and interest by people in

among our audience and among people who are new to our audience, a new audience, in fact.

We're going to continue these

kind of discussions going forward. But right now, the big news of the day is that eight Democratic

senators, Democratic Party senators, broke ranks with the Democratic Party, voted with the

Republicans, and the government will now reopen. I think there are a number

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