America's Democrats

Steve Knievel on his 3 pillars to improve our healthcare system.

Steve Knievel is an advocate for Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program, focusing on expanding affordable access to medicines. They say that to help stop Big Pharma’s price gouging in the U.S., Congress must listen to the American public, ignore the pharmaceutical industry’s high-paid lobbyists and finally pass legislation granting Medicare the authority to negotiate drug prices.

How to get Congress to reform our broken healthcare system

For $3.5 Trillion a year, shouldn’t we Americans have a world-class healthcare system? Yet, while we spend the most of any advanced nation in the world to get care (more than $10,000 a year per person), we get the worst results.

No surprise then, that the “Medicare-for-All” idea is now backed by 85 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of Independents, and (get this) 52 percent of Republicans! So… why isn’t Congress responding to this overwhelming public demand for universal coverage?

The Dangerous Supreme Court

Lot's of well-deserved focus on Justice Breyer's retirement and the certainty of a Black female nominee from Biden. But it will not change the hard-right Court. The upcoming decisions on Roe v Wade, Affirmative Action, and the power of the Federal Government to regulate health and safety are all under attack and likely to change America for the worse. 

Elizabeth Wydra is the President of the Constitutional Accountability Center, a non-partisan progressive organization. It seeks to get the public and judges to understand the Constitution, in its most vital respects, is a progressive document.

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Congress must fix or nix the filibuster.

Charly Carter takes us through the racist origins of the filibuster, and how we must deal with it going forward.

Charly Carter is Executive Director of The Democracy Initiative. She tells us how the Republicans have used it as a tool for preventing progress on important issues like voting rights and caused gridlock that put our nation’s credit rating in peril. She gives common-sense solutions for how the filibuster can be changed.

Should Democrats be the party of small change?

We might expect that corporate billionaires and Koch-funded Republican right-wingers would be howl-at-the-moon opponents of a wealth tax, Medicare-for-All, and other big, progressive ideas to help improve the circumstances of America’s workaday majority. But… Democrats?

Unfortunately, yes. Not grassroots Dems, but a gaggle of don’t-rock-the-corporate-boat, Fraidy-cat Democrats. These naysayers are the Party’s old-line pols, lobbyists, and other insider elites who’re now screeching that Democratic candidates must back off those big proposals.

"I'm Scared. I'm Scared." 

Jonathan Alter is an MSNBC Political Analyst, journalist and Presidential Historian. He's written books about FDR, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. He is very worried about the future of American Democracy. He writes on Substack at OldGoats.substack.com. 

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Joe Uehlein is the Founding President of the Labor Network for Sustainability. He tells us about why we need a “Just Transition” for labor and the climate crisis.

The Labor Network for Sustainability is fighting for a sustainable future for the earth and its people. Joe Uehlein tells us why Democrats must “Go Big, Go Wide, and Go Far” for labor to adapt to the changing economy that climate change is creating.

What’s the charitable thing to do about inequality?

Our society has coined expressions like “philanthropist” to encourage and hail people’s charitable spirit.

Look on the flip side of that shiny coin of generosity, however, and you’ll find that its base substance is societal selfishness. After all, the need for charity only exists because we’re tolerating intentional injustices and widespread inequality created by power elites.

On The Ground in the Fight for Democracy

Control of the Senate in 2022 and the White House in 2024 goes through Wisconsin. Very MAGA Senator Ron Johnson is, by most polling, the most vulnerable incumbent Senator in either party. The Democratic Governor Tony Evers is the firewall against the GOP-controlled state Legislature and is up for re-election in 2022. If he loses, the firewall burns down and voter suppression and election subversion will come to this battleground state that Biden won by only 20,600 votes. Ben Wikler is Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and he tells Bill what it's like on the ground in the fight to preserve democracy. 

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

A nation in a deep economic and moral crisis. 

Celine-Marie Pascale is a professor of sociology at American University in Washington, D.C., and author of Living on the Edge: When Hard Times Become a Way of Life.

Celine-Marie Pascale traveled the country to talk with people who are experiencing economic hardship. Her book Living on the Edge is about more than individual experiences. It’s about a nation in a deep economic and moral crisis. 

How Corporate Greed is Causing Tornado Deaths

Corporate America has proudly elevated good moral values to a special place. That place is the trash can.

Indeed, free market gurus assert that the only ethical obligation a corporation has to society is to deliver as much profit as possible to its big investors – everybody else be damned.

A Nation in "Peril."

The transition from Trump to Biden was one of the most dangerous periods in American history. "Peril" tells that story. The book's co-author (with Bob Woodward) is Robert Costa, a national political reporter at The Washington Post, where he has worked since 2014. He previously served as moderator and managing editor of Washington Week on PBS and as a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. 

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

A historic fight against privatized public services. Moving toward a racial justice agenda. How the rich rig the tax code and the millionaires who want it to stop. 

In his new memoir, Dennis Kucinich writes about how he took on powerful interests to save a public utility. That happened over forty years ago, but the story still carries critical relevance today.

Ben Jealous welcomes efforts at the federal level to rein in abusive policing but says they won't go far enough unless they are matched by transformative reform at the local level. 

In 2010, Erica Payne organized some of the richest Americans to demand higher taxes on millionaires like themselves.  Her new book offers an insider’s view of how the wealthy have rigged the tax code in their favor and offers a blueprint to unrig it.

The best interviews of 2021 - Part 1

This week we discuss Voting rights with Amel Ahmed and David Daley. And Greg Sargent discusses how President Biden is reaching out to rural America with his policy agenda.

The passage of H.R.1 would mark a necessary advance in defense of the right to vote.  But does that go far enough? Amel Ahmed says more can be done to go on the offense in the struggle over voting rights. 

In his newest book, David Daley tells important stories about activists who are winning crucial battles for voting rights. And as they do, Daley says Republicans continue to rig the rules in their favor and put democracy at risk.

President Biden’s Covid policy includes a significant focus on rural America. Greg Sargent says it’s an excellent example of how Biden’s policy agenda can unify a divided America. 

Rethinking the role of immigrants in the U.S. labor market.

Why the old narratives about immigration need to be changed.

Ruth Milkman is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center and the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. She is the co-editor, with Deepak Bhargava and Penny Lewis, of Immigration Matters: Movements, Visions, and Strategies for a Progressive Future.

Special gifts for special people

Ho-Ho-Ho, wait till you hear about the gifts I gave to some of America’s power elites for Christmas.

To each of our Congress critters, I sent my fondest wish that from now on they receive the exact same income, health care, and pensions that we average citizens get.

Trump's "Betrayal" of America

Bill Press says Jonathan Karl’s new book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, is the best book on the final year of the Trump Presidency. Karl was the Chief White House correspondent for ABC News through the end of the Trump administration. He is now the ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent. 

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

A call to rebuild union power.  

Hamilton Nolan on why the recent strive wave demands stronger unions. 

Labor reporter Hamilton Nolan says the recent wave of workers on strike is politically inspiring. But if it is to turn into real change, we must rediscover the power of unions. 

The Plasticization of Planet Earth

What do your toothbrush and your running shoes have in common?

Plastic. We now live on Planet Plastic, billions of tons of waste from everyday products made of these chemical contaminants are strewn literally everywhere – on the highest mountaintops, into the deepest seabeds, in dense tropical jungles, and all across barren deserts. 

America Under Attack. From Inside.

This latest attack on America is a nonviolent coup. It's taking place across the country. It's led by Donald Trump himself. It's being carried out by his loyal followers. How can Democrats fight back? A discussion with Brian Beutler, Editor-in-chief of Crooked Media, a company formed by Obama alumni and home of the great podcast, Pod Save America. 

If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

Why now is the time to expand the Supreme Court. And Bill Press with a report card on the nation’s economy.

Sarah Lipton-Lubet on how to break the conservative stranglehold on the Supreme Court. Plus Bill Press with former Amalgamated Bank CEO  Keith Mestrich on the direction of our economic recovery. 

With a conservative 6-to-3 majority, the Supreme Court in its current composition has already shown what they are willing to sacrifice to a political agenda. Sarah Lipton Lubet advocates for restoring balance and integrity to the Court, and she says expanding the court is the way to do that.

“Team Greed” plays big-time sports!

‘Tis the season, right? Traditionally, this time of year celebrates spirituality and festivities – including Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa.

In modern-day America, however, the Winter Solstice signals the faithful to gather from afar in monumental temples to worship our nation’s supreme secular deity: Big Time Sports! 

Bill Press talks with former Amalgamated Bank CEO Keith Mestrich on why he still believes the economy in on track to a full recovery. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.

The private takeover of public resources, and how to fight back.  Plus Bill Press on the censuring of  Paul Gosar.

Donald Cohen on his new book  The Privatization of Everything. Plus Bill Press with highlights of the House floor debate over the censuring of Paul Gosar after he posted an animated video depicting him killing fellow lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

In his newest book, co-author Donald Cohen explores what happens when necessary public services are privatized.  He makes a powerful case for returning public goods to public control rather than allowing them to enrich the few. 

Bill Press with highlights of the floor debate leading up to the vote to censure Representative Paul Gosar and remove him from his committee assignments. If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com. 

What’s the “Quits Rate?” And Why Is It Skyrocketing?

Corporate bosses across America have been sputtering in outrage at you working stiffs this summer, spewing expletives about the fact that while the US economy has been coming back… you haven’t!

“Labor shortage,” they squeal, lazily accusing the workforce of mass laziness. They charge insultingly that millions of workers got used to laying around during the pandemic.