January 21 - The Republican's Deliberate Slap in the Face to Obama's SOTU; The Diplomatic Opening Underway in Havana, Cuba; Obama, the Democrats, and the "Inclusive Capitalism" Movement

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the first response to Obama’s State of the Union from the Republicans which is an invitation from Speaker Boehner to Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu to address the Congress, aimed clearly as a slap in the face to Obama’s foreign policy efforts in coordination with the U.K., France, China, Russia and Germany, to curb Iran’s nuclear program and end its isolation. M.J. Rosenberg, who served as the Director of Policy Analysis for the Israel Policy Forum and was an editor of Near East Report, the American Israel Public Affairs (AIPAC’s) biweekly publication on Middle East Policy, joins us to discuss whether this poke in the eye to Obama will backfire in Israel and hurt Netanyahu’s reelection chances.

Part 2

Then we look into the diplomatic opening underway in Havana in talks between the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, Roberta Jacobson and her Cuban counterpart Josefina Vidal, the head of the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s North American affairs division. William Leogrande, a Professor of Government at American University and co-author of “Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana” joins us to discuss the likely outcome of the first talks in 38 years involving a top U.S. official and the Cuban government.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Thomas Edsall, a professor of journalism at Columbia University and the author of “The New Politics of Inequality” and “The Age of Austerity”. He joins us to discuss his op-ed in The New York Times “Can Capitalists Save Capitalism” and the emerging “inclusive capitalism” movement that seeks to make our capitalist system more equitable, more sustainable and more inclusive. We will discuss elements of “inclusive capitalism” in the president’s State of the Union address and the White House’s economic agenda of tax increases on the 1% aimed at bringing about “higher median incomes, lower poverty rates, and broader, more inclusive growth”.