Race and Taxes, and Jane Mayer on How to Kill a Bill

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The investigative reporter Jane Mayer recently received a recording of a meeting attended by conservative power brokers including Grover Norquist, representatives of PACs funded by Charles Koch, and an aide to Senator Mitch McConnell. The subject was the voting-rights bill H.R. 1, and the mood was anxious. The bill (which we discussed in last week’s episode) would broadly make voting more accessible, which tends to benefit Democratic candidates, and it would raise the curtain on “dark money” in elections with stringent disclosure requirements. The problem for this group, a political strategist says, is that the bill is popular among voters of both parties, but H.R. 1, they insist, must die. As we hear the participants tick through options to tarnish the bill’s public appeal, Mayer notes how the political winds have shifted in Washington, leaving the Republican coalition newly fragile. Plus, Dorothy Brown, a professor of tax law, uncovers how the seemingly race-neutral tax code compounds many inequalities in American life, and prevents Black people from building wealth. She talks with Sheelah Kolhatkar about her new book, “The Whiteness of Wealth.”

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of W.N.N.Y.C. Studios and The New Yorker.
0:08.8	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Thank you as well to everyone who's joined us this morning, and for your interest in HR1, free speech, and citizen privacy.
0:18.6	Last week on the show, we talked about a bill before Congress known as HR1.
0:23.1	It's far from routine legislation.
0:25.4	HR1 is probably the most important voting rights law since 1965.
0:30.4	And if it's passed, and that's a very big if, HR1 would bring automatic voter registration
0:36.2	across the country. It would take on gerrymandering,
0:40.0	and it would restore voting rights to felons who have served their time. But there's another aspect of
0:45.2	H.R.1 that we didn't talk about last week, and that's campaign financing. So-called dark money
0:51.8	could be dark no more. Political groups would have to make their big donors public.
0:57.3	And for those people behind dark money packs,
0:59.6	people like conservative super donor Charles Koch,
1:02.7	that provision of HR1 is very bad news.
1:07.1	Back in January, before the inauguration,
1:10.0	a group of political strategists had a meeting to discuss HR1.
1:13.6	Staff writer Jane Mayer got her hands on a leaked recording of that meeting.
1:17.6	When I first heard this recording, I nearly fell off my chair, I have to admit.
1:24.6	Gathered together on this call were the leaders of a number of powerful conservative groups.
1:31.9	They included a group that was run by Charles Koch, who happens to be one of the very biggest donors of dark money in American history,
1:41.5	and with them were representatives from the office of a couple of Republican members of
1:48.8	Congress, including Mitch McConnell's office.
1:51.8	And one of the people who was on the call was Grover Norquist, who is a longtime crusader
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios and The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.