The Dispatch podcast is presented by Pacific Legal Foundation, suing the government since 1973.

Welcome to the dispatch podcast. I'm Steve Hayes. I'm joined today by Washington Post columnist

Megan McArdle, a dispatch contributor, and my dispatch colleague's national correspondent Kevin

Williamson and executive editor, Declan Garvey. On this week's roundtable, we'll discuss

our national debt after President Trump announced a new war on fraud to be led by Vice President

J.D. Vance. And the president's claim from the state of the union that he can balance the budget

overnight if we just get rid of some fraud. Then the teenage dating recession, should we worry that

teenagers aren't partying in 2026 and aren't really even getting together? And finally,

not worth your time, our unread emails. Before we get to today's conversation, please consider

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Music Megan, I want to start with a question to you in his otherwise long but mostly forgettable state of the union address on Tuesday evening.

President Trump announced that J.D. Vance would be leading the administration's new war on fraud.

And the president in announcing this said he'll get it done. And if we're able to find

enough of that fraud, we will actually have a balanced budget overnight. I want to address this

in two sort of separate but related conversations. One, having to do with the debt overall,

annual deficits that we've been running, that are getting worse.

And then this question of fraud and how much fraud is a part of our ongoing fiscal challenges.

...