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79: The six words behind the case against Obamacare Mar 12, 2015

Show notes

“What did they know and when did they know it?”
It’s Washington’s favorite question for scandal, for mystery or subterfuge.
Senator Howard Baker coined “what did they know and when did they know it” back in the Watergate hearings. It’s what lawmakers are asking about politics within the IRS, what regulators asked bank executives about the financial crisis and, of course, what EVERYONE wants to know about Hillary Clinton’s emails.
But it also is the question at the heart of the current challenge to the Affordable Care Act, the ACA, also known as Obamacare. That’s the challenge the Supreme Court heard last week. Specifically, what did the people who wrote the law know about six words in the middle of a 906-page document. Those words stipulate that for people who cannot afford health care coverage, subsidies are available through “an exchange established by the state.”
A key reminder, an exchange is just another word for a marketplace where you can go and buy health insurance. If you know anything about the ACA, you know that the federal exchange, or at least its web site, healthcare.gov., was a disaster when it first launched. States have the option to set up their own exchanges and skip the federal marketplace altogether.
The government argued before the court that those words refer to any exchange, whether it was set up and run by the state or run for the state by the federal government. After all, it’s called the Affordable Care Act because the whole goal was to make health insurance affordable to everyone.
The people challenging the law say the language is clear, it means exactly what it says. They argue that the Democrats who wrote those words actually wanted to withhold federal subsidies from states that didn’t build exchanges. That was their intention – a sort of carrot and stick.
Michael Cannon, director of Health Policy Studies at the libertarian CATO Institute did research into those six words that formed the basis of the court challenge, and this is what he says:
“It’s very clear right there in the statute. … Congress really meant that -- they intended that,” he said. “We thought that we were going to find that that was just a drafting error, that those words were accidentally slipped into the law and that’s not the case. All the evidence points to the conclusion that Congress meant to do this.”
John McDonough, who was a top aid to Sen. Ted Kennedy and deeply involved in writing the text of the ACA in 2009, says there’s no mystery about what the lawmakers meant when they wrote those words:
“Absolutely every member who voted for the law and every staffer involved in crafting the law fully understood that the subsidies would flow and were intended to flow to all 50 states regardless of whether they had a state exchange or if they had a federal exchange.”
McDonough says the opponents to Obamacare are just cherry picking six words.
“The Supreme Court has talked repeatedly that you never interpret a law just looking at random words here and there. You interpret a law based upon the context and the whole meaning of the whole statute and when you do that, there is no argument left.”
Our podcast guest host, Todd Zwillich examines how those six words have became a federal case and why this law never got the copy-editing it deserved.

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78: Generation Me Mar 05, 2015

Show notes

Political scientists and lawyers have had their chance to diagnose the causes of the obvious ills in the American body politic, and to write some prescriptions. It’s high time to give some other faculties a chance.
In this week’s podcast, we talk to a psychologist, Dr. Jean Twenge, of San Diego State University and the author of “Generation Me.” Twenge’s research often involves psychological differences between generations. Her writings are smart, thought provoking and very in tune with the times.
One research finding we talk about in the podcast is that the well-documented decline in the trust Americans have in government and big institutions mirrors a decline in trust we have for each other. We just generally trust people less than we have in the recent past. So which is the chicken and which is the egg, less trust in people or in “the system”? It is all scrambled.
Twenge suspects that a big part of this change is that Americans’ identity – our sense of individualism – is much less bound up in belonging to community, traditions, institutions and groups than it used to be. If that’s the case, it makes sense that we are more alienated from politics and government.
Twenge has found this trend is exaggerated among young people, which is depressing. Millennials, she says, are especially uninterested in the civic world around them and less idealistic. And she says they have good reason.

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77: Inside House of Cards 5 Feb 27, 2015

Show notes

We are only hours away from the release of season three of House of Cards, the dark, cynical world of Washington politics as ruled by Francis Underwood.
It’s a world that series showrunner Beau Willimon is well familiar with. As a playwright, he tackled similar themes with Farragut North, later adapted into the film Ides of March, starring George Clooney. And it’s a world Willimon has also lived as a former campaign staffer during several elections.
In the final installment of our special series of podcasts, “Inside House of Cards,” Willimon tells us that working on the series and working on a campaign are not that different.
“You have a big team of people who are all trying to accomplish the same goal. In the case of the campaign, it’s to get someone elected on a certain date. On a TV show, its to have 13 hours of content produced and ready to be delivered by a certain date and then on that date you see what the world thinks.”
Frank Underwood, a ruthless and conniving congressman maneuvers his way to the Oval office through all means necessary – regardless of the legality or the body count. But Willimon says it’s not a show about politics.
“What the show is really about is power,” he says. “It’s about how we navigate power not just in D.C. but with our spouses, our lovers, our friends, our colleagues … and that’s what makes it universal.”
In this final installment of “Inside House of Cards," go inside the show with the man who invented Frank, Claire, Zoe, Remy and the world they occupy.

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76: Inside House of Cards 4 Feb 25, 2015

Show notes

Francis Underwood has finally made it to the White House. The character, played by Kevin Spacey, spent the first two seasons of “House of Cards” scheming, murdering and blackmailing his way from Congress to the vice presidency to the Oval Office. Together with his equally conniving wife, Claire, played by Robin Wright, they knock down every conceivable barrier, using any means necessary, in their quest for power.
The show is filled with a lot of people willing to do almost anything to get what they want – but among the sleaziest characters in the series are a couple of female political reporters. They sleep with their sources, can’t help but catfight with each other and have the ethical standards of …. Well, they don’t have any ethical standards.
We’re talking about Zoe Barnes, the young ambitious upstart reporter who starts at the conventional Washington Herald and flees for greater freedom and fame at the start-up digital “Slugline.” Her nemesis is the Herald’s White House correspondent, Janine Skorsky, who ultimate joins Zoe at “Slugline.”
The idea that there’s a certain amount of sex or sexism in the Washington press pool isn’t totally off base. But that doesn’t mean real-life female political reporters see themselves in these characters.
Pamela Kirkland, a video reporter at The Washington Post, wants to make one thing very clear, “I don’t sleep with people to get stories, that’s not how this works,” she says. “I am a journalist in Washington, D.C., but those are the only parallels between myself and Zoe Barnes.”
"House of Cards” actually uses a part of the Baltimore Sun newsroom as its set. That’s where reporter Carrie Wells works. “I think a lot of people on the staff are fans of ‘House of Cards’,” says Wells. But she cautions, “it’s good entertainment, it’s just not journalism.”
Listen to what it really takes to be a successful female political reporter in part four of our podcast series “Inside House of Cards.”

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75: Inside House of Cards 3 Feb 24, 2015

Show notes

It’s “House of Cards” week on DecodeDC.
We are helping get YOU ready for the release of Season 3 of the Netflix series with a five-podcast special series, “Inside House of Cards.”
Today’s installment – the third – is all about the business, or maybe the bloodsport, of lobbying and politics.
One day, you’re an elected official or a political staff member. The next, you’re a member of a K Street firm trying your best to influence the very same government officials and legislators you just worked with.That’s the revolving door Jimmy Williams spun through when he went from Senate staffer to lobbyist.
In the Netflix series, Remy Danton is a former press secretary and protege of Frank Underwood turned lobbyist. He uses his connections and contacts on behalf of one main client, an energy company.
Jimmy Williams says Danton is a great character – he’s just not realistic. “You know what a lobbyist does in Washington, D.C.?” he rhetorically asks podcast host Andrea Seabrook. “Fund-raises. Nothing more and nothing less.”
Williams says being a successful lobbyist means raising and delivering the most cash to a politician. “You raise the most money, you have the most access.” And it’s all legal.
We go inside the real and fictional world of lobbying in today’s installment of “Inside House of Cards.”

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74: Inside House of Cards 2 Feb 23, 2015

Show notes

In the second installment of our DecodeDC special series, “Inside House of Cards,” we go into the world of journalism and politics.
Our guide, Matt Bai, spent years as a Washington political reporter for The New York Times Magazine and is now a political columnist for Yahoo News. He has a particularly interesting perspective on how “House of Cards” depicts his profession, because Bai plays himself in several episodes of the second season of the series.
While Bai thinks journalism in “House of Cards” is much darker than what really happens in Washington, D.C., he says there still is a lot that rings true. Frank Underwood and other characters are more transactional than real politicians, Bai says, but the series represents some essential truths about how the public sees Washington politics.
“Sadly the thing that ‘House of Cards’ gets at is that everybody is about themselves, everybody is trying to game the system to their own advantage” Bai says. “There’s virtually no one for whom the end game is the actual enactment of policy.”

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73: Inside House of Cards 1 Feb 19, 2015

Show notes

February has been a brutal month for most of us – snow and cold and ice and kids home from school and trips cancelled. Perhaps the only thing that redeems this month is the release of season three of “House of Cards” on Feb. 27.
Perhaps it is our fascination with the dysfunction of Washington that makes the Netflix drama so irresistible. Perhaps it’s the fact that the series takes you where no journalist is allowed to go - into the fantastical and not so fantastical political wheeling and dealing going on all around us – with a large dose of dramatic license.
Where exactly is that line between truth, fiction and Washington politics? That’s the question we try to answer with a special series of podcasts – that’s right, it is “House of Cards” week on DecodeDC. Whether you are a series fan or just want to get the inside scoop on the dirtiest deeds of politicians, journalists and the political operatives that occupy Washington, you will definitely want to listen.
**Spoiler alert – we’re going to talk about things that happened in seasons one and two.**
In case you missed the first two seasons – here are the essentials.
Francis Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey, has wheedled and schemed his way from Congress to the vice presidency to the Oval Office. Together with his equally conniving wife, Claire, played by Robin Wright, they knock down every conceivable barrier, using any means necessary, in their quest for power. Along the way there’s murder, blackmail, a risque assortment of sexual forays, a crazy trade deal with China, a lot of seduction and deception. Those on the Underwoods’ side are rewarded, those obstructing their path are mowed down. Where do these people come up with these plots? We go to the sources for the answer.
In episode one of “Inside House of Cards,” we take you into the writers room. Staff writer Bill Kennedy explains the narrative and the relationships and the key scenes that define seasons one and two.
Journalism takes a shellacking in the series and in our second episode, we speak with Matt Bai, formally a political reporter at The New York Times Magazine. Bai plays a political reporter for The New York Times in season two and says the series gets at some essential truths about Washington and journalism.
In episode three, we enter the world of Capitol-Hill-staffer-turned-lobbyist. Jimmy Williams has led the real life of one of the fictional characters in the series, Remy Danton. Williams says the life of a lobbyist is about one thing, raising money for members of Congress.
House of Cards has a lot of nasty people, but some of the nastiest are female reporters. In episode four, we talk to two real-life women journalists who cover Washington -- Pam Kirkland of the Washington Post, the paper fictionalized in "House of Cards", and Carrie Wells of the Baltimore Sun, stand-in and real life set for the imagined "Washington Herald."
In our fifth and final episode, we speak with Beau Willimon, the man behind the series. Willimon adapted the British version of “House of Cards” for the American audience and runs the show. A former campaign staffer, Willimon knows how the system works from the inside out, and as playwright he knows how to do drama.
Download the DecodeDC's "Inside House of Cards" special series starting today and all next week – or, you can just binge listen to them all before the 27th!

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72: The politics of love Feb 12, 2015

Show notes

Picture this: Girl agrees to go on date with boy. Girl and boy are having a great time together. But girl has a really bad feeling about boy.
Girl thinks boy is a Republican. Date comes to a screeching halt.
No, this is not some weird political romance novel. It’s the true story of Jessica’s first date with her now-husband, Ross. (Side note, he’s not a Republican.)
“I sort of stopped and was like, can we set the record straight on this, like are you a Republican or not? Because if you are, like we could just end this date right now,” said Jessica Morales Rocketto.
It may sound a little dramatic—refusing to date someone based on political ideology. But on this week’s podcast, host Andrea Seabrook and producer Rachel Quester explore the wonky world of how much politics actually affect our romantic relationships.
For liberals and conservatives, compatibility on political ideology is more important when picking a spouse than personality or physical characteristics. That’s according to John Alford, a political science professor at Rice University.
Alford says that our biology predisposes us toward one ideology or the other—that the brains of liberals and conservatives are just wired differently. And that, he says, is why it’s really difficult to marry across the aisle.
“One of the nicest views about the United States is this idea of the United States as a melting pot where over generations, differences disappear…. because we’re mating disproportionately with people of like-political views, there is no melting pot,” Alford said.
Now for those who haven’t already picked their mate, there is hope for the politically minded single.
Two dating sites, Red State Date and Blue State Date, match people based on compatible political ideologies. Alex Fondrier, the founder of both sites, said the purpose of the dating service is to help people passionate about politics find others who share that same passion.
Listen to this week’s podcast for political dating advice, and why you should start every date with this question: What’s the first word that comes to mind when someone says Hillary Clinton?
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71: Is it enough to make community college free? Feb 05, 2015

Show notes

Ever since President Obama unveiled his proposal to make two years of community college free for every American, it seems like all we’ve heard about is the money. How much would it cost?
(Answer: about $6 billion.) How much would it bring in, once those students graduate, get better paying jobs, and contribute more in taxes?
Here’s what no one seems to be talking about: actually finishing.
Just 35 percent of students who start a two-year community college program get their degree within six years. There are a lot of reasons for that, says Krissy DeAlejandro, who started a full-tuition community college scholarship program in her home state of Tennessee.
There isn’t one big reason why students tend to drop out, says DeAlejandro, but a combination of lots of little reasons. If their parents haven't been to college, which is the case for most of the students DeAlejandro works with, all of the college jargon can sound like a foreign language.
"Oftentimes, what we've found is that they have questions you or I would take for granted like, 'What's a semester?' or 'What's a credit hour?' Those sorts of things, little barriers, will make a student throw up their hands and say, 'You know what, this is not for me.'"
In Tennessee, DeAlejandro confronts these challenges with a unique weapon: volunteer mentors. She has a cadre of thousands. They visit high schools in 83 counties and help high school seniors keep up with all of the paperwork and deadlines so they can earn the scholarship.
Once the students get on campus, DeAlejandro and her team follow up with texts, emails and regular face-to-face meetings. The state of Tennesee's fall-to-fall retention rate for community college students is about 50 percent. But among DeAlejandro's scholarship students? That retention rate is closer to 80 percent.
So far, President Obama's plan doesn't include any of the mentoring or other supports DeAlejandro believes are so critical. Even though she and a colleague visited the White House over the summer to brief members of Obama's staff, it doesn't appear, at least, like they've taken all her advice.
Still, DeAlejandro says she supports the President's program and is excited to see how it evolves.

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70: Can we stop Boko Haram? Jan 29, 2015

Show notes

Crowds in the street chanting, “Bring back our girls!” Images of distraught parents and an outraged community. That’s how most Americans first learned about the terrorist group Boko Haram, which kidnapped more than 250 school girls from a state run school in Nigeria last April.
In recent weeks, several brutal attacks have brought Boko Haram back into the news, from the all out assault and destruction of a fishing village in northeastern Nigeria that may have left as many as 2,000 dead, to the use of children as young as 10 years old in recent suicide bomb attacks.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who has called Boko Haram “without question one of the most evil and threatening” terrorist organizations on Earth, traveled to Nigeria earlier this week to meet with the two main candidates running in next month’s presidential elections and stress the U.S.’s support for the Nigerian government in combating this terrorist organization.
But when it comes to a group committing acts that are so heinous and with seemingly no limit to what they’re willing to do, isn’t there more the United States can do?
On this week’s DecodeDC podcast, we ask, why don’t we just swoop in and help the good guys in Nigeria? Or simply eliminate these Boko Haram guys? Why can’t the U.S. and the international community just say: Enough.
The answers we got are stunning and a more than a little eye-opening, because many close to the situation say they're not even sure the U.S. can do anything at all.
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