This podcast is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Opinion Research

An alternate title for this week: the “We All Feel a Little Dumber” edition of A Republic, If You Can Keep It. We are dumber for having listened to 2 hours of 7 people auditioning for 2nd place in the Republican presidential rankings – a race that looks like the 1973 Belmont Stakes when the second-place horse finished 31 lengths behind Secretariat. We’re recording on Friday morning … about 36 hours before it’s likely the federal government will go into shutdown mode. We are joined by one of the top Democrats in the U.S. House, Congressman Dan Kildee, to talk budget, impeachment, Kevin McCarthy and the UAW strike.

Also this week:

Congressman Dan Kildee is chief deputy whip in the Democratic caucus, and serves on the committee that is responsible for tax legislation – Ways and Means – and the committee responsible for allocating tax money – Budget. A native of Flint, Congressman Kildee is in his 6th term in the House. He was first elected to public office at the age of 18 when he successfully ran for the Flint School Board. Since then he served 12 years on the Genesee County Commission, and 12 years as county treasurer before his election to Congress. He became nationally known for creating the nation’s first community land bank, a non-profit corporation which restores blighted properties in Genesee County. The concept has been copied nationwide.

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