Ta-Nehisi Coates and minority political traditions

Democrats are caught in a new and somewhat troubling fad, in which they promise working-class people extremely broad tax cuts, which, in practice, would make expanding the safety net all but impossible.

In this Matt and Brian discuss:

* The Oscars!

* What are these policies, where do they come from, and what would they mean, in practice, for other elements of the Democratic agenda?

* Is there tension between Revenuemaxxing™️ and Billionairemogging™️, and can it be resolved?

* Given all that will need to be rebuilt post-Trump, should Democrats embrace fiscal responsibility, or might there be some advantage to playing chicken with Republicans over the future of the American welfare state?

Then, Donald Trump seems pretty panicked about the consequences of his misbegotten Iran war. But not enough to chicken out. At least not yet. Why is that? What are the peculiarities of the global energy market that might explain it. If he’s waiting for global oil futures to hit crisis levels, what kinds of developments in the war might send it there? And can we count on Democrats to oppose war funding?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Matt on quagmires.

* Brian on how the Iran war exposes the shallowness of the U.S. elite.

* The Yale Budget Lab on the Van Hollen tax plan.

* Matt Zeitlen on the oil shock. (Spoiler: it’s bad.)