Here's the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC Good Monday Morning, everyone.

Two big news headlines from the last few days that will begin with today.

Number one, Attorney General Merrick Arland has appointed a special counsel.

Yes, same title as Jack Smith, who's charging Donald Trump with trying to fake being elected.

Mark Arland has named another special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden.

So even though these are in no way equivalent in terms of the future of our democracy,

casual consumers of news might be tempted to think, well, there's a Trump special counsel

and a Biden special counsel, whatever about those two will discuss.

And story number two, the Democrats who run New York City, New York State, and the White

House are at odds with each other in additional ways in the last few days over all the asylum

seekers coming to New York.

State Attorney General Leticia James, have you heard this, announced she is refusing to

represent Governor Kathy Hokel, both Democrats obviously, in a lawsuit seeking more migrant

services from the state government.

Typically, the Attorney General does represent the governor's office when it is sued.

And Merrick, Adam's demanded that the Biden administration do more to help with Adam's

new estimate of a $12 billion price tag for the city over the next two years for asylum

seekers services.

With me now, though, is the Washington Bureau chief for the Economist Magazine, the Dries

Kallun, with a data-driven view of those numbers.

He had an article in the New Yorker recently titled, The Economist's Love in the Gratian,

why do so many Americans hate it?

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