The government is heading directly for a shutdown as Senate Republicans admit that they do not have the votes to extend federal funding, even for the short term. Meanwhile, President Trump tweeted today that the Children's Health Insurance Plan should not be part of a Continuing Resolution, but instead should be part of a long-term solution, along with his border wall.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson backpedaled yesterday on US plans for Syria's border with Turkey, saying that the US would not arm a Kurdish border force and adding that the US owes Turkey an explanation. Tillerson said further that the US plans to maintain a military force inside Syria even after Daesh is defeated. Ambassador Peter Ford, the former United Kingdom ambassador to Syria, joins the show.
President Trump is set to address by satellite Friday's March for Life, the annual anti-choice gathering that is gaining new ground under the Trump Administration. Brian and John speak with Karina Garcia, a reproductive justice organizer.
Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Mick Mulvaney has requested no funding for the next quarter, stating that the reserve fund has $177.1 million, plenty to fund the agency, which expects $145 million in costs-essentially defunding the reserve. This is after his announcement on Tuesday that the agency will delay and revisit regulations on payday lending, a predatory system long understood to target the poor. Jim Kavanagh, the editor of ThePolemicist.net, joins the show.
A little more than a year after then-President-elect Trump stood before cheering workers at a Carrier manufacturing plant in Indiana and promised to keep their Rust Belt jobs from moving to China, those same workers are feeling betrayed, as more than 1,500 were laid off, the final 200 just this week. Pete Dolack, an activist and writer with Trade Justice New York Metro joins Brian and John.
Members of the Catalonian parliament elected a separatist as Speaker yesterday in their first meeting since the central government in Madrid dissolved the region's parliament. Dick Nichols, the correspondent for Spain and Catalonia for Green Left Weekly, joins the show.
More than 120 prisoners took control of a French prison outside Paris in response to a demonstration by hundreds of prison guards a day earlier, during which the guards burned tires and wooden pallets in protest about various grievances. Brian and John speak with Ksenia Kozlitina, Sputnik France correspondent and news analyst.
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