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Matt Mackowiak's Mack On Politics

Smart political talk every week from Austin, Texas political consultant Matt Mackowiak, who has served in senior roles for two U.S. Senators and the Bush administration.
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Matt Mackowiak's Mack On Politics
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Now displaying: August, 2017
Aug 26, 2017

Our guest for the 42nd episode is Jon Ward, a journalist of 15 years who currently writes for Yahoo News. He previously reported for The Huffington Post and was a White House correspondent for The Washington Times. Mr. Ward is currently writing a book about the 1980 primary between sitting U.S. President Jimmy Carter and then-Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), which will be released next year.

We began by looking at the upcoming border wall funding battle and assess the potential for a government shutdown. Then we examined whether a realignment in American politics is underway.

We then turned to a discussion of that 1980 Democratic presidential primary – how it came about, how it played out, why it mattered then and why it matters today. We continued by discussing his writing process and reviewed what he’s learned about writing his first book.

Finally, we talked about what it’s like covering the White House, how the media is doing today, and look ahead to the future of journalism.

Aug 15, 2017

Tax reform crusader Grover Norquist is our guest for the 41st episode.

Since 1985, he has been running Americans for Tax Reform, the leading conservative organization in the country on tax reform and limiting spending.

With Congress set to begin a major debate on tax cuts, we checked in with Norquist on where the effort currently stands, whether the (temporary?) failure to reform health care makes tax reform easier or harder, whether there is a parallel between the Reagan tax cuts and this year’s version, why annual economic growth matters, how federal spending fits into this debate, what he wants to see happen on health care, and why his organization’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge has been so influential for so many years.

Aug 11, 2017

We explore the North Korean threat from all angles with 36-year military veteran Gen. Jerry Boykin (U.S. Army, Ret.) on our 40th episode.

In this discussion, we consider how concerned Guam should be, what the current state of the North Korean nuclear program is, why North Korea would give up their nuclear weapons, what would change China’s strategic calculation, how worried South Korea should be, what the current level of U.S. military readiness is, what can the U.S. offer China to persuade them to do more, what Secretary Mattis might be thinking and what would lead the U.S. to take pre-emptive military action.

Aug 7, 2017

Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is our guest for the 39th episode.

We begin by discussing with him the case of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the Pakistani citizen who was working for her who was arrested trying to leave the country two weeks ago. What is really happening with this story and where is it headed? DeSantis has asked DOJ to investigate.

Then we turn to a discussion of North Korea, Iran, health care, and immigration, with Rep. DeSantis, whose committee work touches all of those areas.

We wrap up with his view on what he hopes Congress can accomplishment for the rest of 2017.

Aug 5, 2017

Michael Reagan is our guest for the 38th episode. He is the son of former President Ronald Reagan, and the President of the Reagan Legacy Foundation, and an author, commentator and motivational speaker.

We talked to him about parallels between Reagan Democrats and Trump Democrats, about the importance of traveling the country for Reagan’s success, about how Reagan worked successfully with Democrats, including on tax reform, about why performance is an important part of politics, and about what lessons Trump can learn from Reagan’s way of dealing with Russia.

Finally, we discussed two policy areas of personal importance to Michael Reagan: sex trafficking and adoption.

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