Waste, Fraud and Abuse: it is either the new right-wing code for trickle-down economics, or another sign of Trump’s dementia. Republicans want us to believe that a $4.5-TRILLION tax cut for rich folks and corporations can be covered without damaging services needed by the rest of us. Their “theory”: we can cover it by having Elon eliminate WF&A, plus enact bigly tariffs on our allies and China. But just in case, Trump asks that the federal debt limit be increased by $4-TRILLION.

Meanwhile, Trump keeps saying he won’t cut Medicare even as House Republicans signal a cut of $800-billion or more. Trump is promising to raise tariffs on Mexico and Canada in a week, posing a direct threat to Michigan’s economy and the jobs of untold thousands.

Another part of Trump’s balance the budget plan: sell U.S. citizenships for $5-million. We simply can’t imagine that a hostile government would use that as a way to embed spies into our society. (All of this is coming from a President who added 8-trillion-dollars to the national debt in his first term, and somehow manage to drive multiple casinos into bankruptcy.) On the plus side, the Musk-Trump Chain Saw Massacre continues to provide gainful employment for a lot of lawyers, with the count of lawsuits challenging them closing in on 100. So far, the plaintiffs are winning as the courts push back against the massive constitutional violations of Musk and the Muskrats.

Governor Whitmer lays out her hopes and dreams for the upcoming legislative session, even as she draws some flack from Democrats unhappy with her cozying up to Trump and state House Speaker Matt Hall. And Speaker Hall has done a 180 on applying the Freedom of Information Act to the Legislature and Governor. He was, as John Kerry memorably said, for it before he was against it.

Making a triumphant return to the podcast is journalist/philosopher John Lindstrom. John covered Michigan State government for more than 42 years before retiring in 2023. For the last two years, he has been a Detroit Free Press contributing columnist. His columns offer rigorous political analysis, of course, but more than that John offers readers the tools to build their own scaffolding. He doesn’t tell readers how to think — he suggests ways to think. John is also the unofficial Walking Wikipedia of Michigan’s political history dating back to the mid 1970s.

Joining him is another veteran of Lansing journalism with a long history covering State of the State messages. Former Associated Press reporter Cindy Kyle covered her first SOS back in 1977. Now retired, she has followed state government ever since including during her 18 years directing communications for our friends at MSU’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and at the Michigan Political Leadership Program.

We should mention that they are the John and Mika of Lansing journalism – except they haven’t been to Mar-a-Lago lately!

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This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA,