S05E14 – Trump Robs the IRS and Republicans Make Teachers Informants

In this episode of Finding Common Battle Grounds, we tackle two topics. First, we examine Donald Trump’s efforts to brazenly and blatantly steal a few billion dollars from the federal government. Trump sued the IRS, claiming they leaked his tax records (they didn’t, but a former contractor for the IRS did). He sued for $10 billion, after he became President, which was effectively like he was suing himself as he got to decide the outcome. That was a first, because, despite there being plenty of crooks to inhabit the Oval Office, none are as brazenly corrupt as Trump. He then settled the lawsuit with two agreements: (1) His administration gets a $1.8 billion slush fund to give out to anyone who felt wronged by Biden, and (2) Trump and his family are immune from IRS investigation forever. Josh and Tom argue that Trump’s lawsuit was legitimate, but otherwise agree with Ryan that this is blatant corruption and theft. We then turn to a new piece of federal legislation, the PROTECT Kids Act, that would force teachers to tell parents if their kids want to be called by a different name or pronouns. Josh is strongly in favor of the act and thinks it is the responsibility of teachers to inform on their students. Ryan disagrees. He argues that teachers are supposed to teach and make sure kids are safe, from themselves or others. This boils down to a disagreement over whether a kid exploring their gender is “safe” or not. Josh considers it evil. Ryan does not. Tom sees both sides. We don’t agree!