The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich

Let me share with you in this short podcast some of the things I’ve heard from people in the last few months, which may suggest the first stirrings of fundamental social change. Very interested in your reactions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe

This morning I phoned my old friend Alan Simpson, the former Wyoming senator. Alan and I see eye-to-eye on nothing. He’s a conservative Republican, I’m a progressive Democrat. He’s a fiscal hawk, I don’t worry about the national debt. He thinks Biden has gone too far, I don’t think he’s gone far enough. We don’t see eye-to-eye literally, either. He’s 6 foot 7 and I’m 4 feet 11. But here’s the thin...

This week, we’re going to witness two high-stakes games of chicken. 1. The first game will be between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans over raising the debt ceiling and extending funding the government beyond Thursday. These two issues are really quite different: Funding is the more immediate need because if no agreement is reached by Thursday night, the government will shut down. The debt...

My first week of writing (and drawing) this letter has been everything I hoped it would be, largely because of you. Thank you for joining me in this experiment (and it is an experiment because I’ve never tried anything like it before). I hope you will find it useful — as well as interesting and occasionally even amusing. It’s no secret the past year has been long and grueling. Although I’ve been l...