April 15 – Economic Fairness on Tax Day; Your Cuban Terrorist is My Freedom Fighter; Finally a For-Profit College Gets Fined

Full Program

Part 1

On this tax day we begin with an overview of the economy and look into the issue of growing economic inequality as the Republican Congress moves to reward the richest one percent of the one percent with a repeal of the so-called “death tax” along with a loophole that allows America’s wealthiest families to pass on their estates to heirs without paying a penny of capital gains or taxes. Jeff Madrick, a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, whose latest book is “Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World”, joins us to discuss who among us pays their fair share on tax day.

Part 2

Then we assess the future of President Obama’s historic opening to Cuba now that Cuba is to be removed from the list of nations that sponsor terrorism. We speak with William Leogrande, a Professor of Government at American University and author of “Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana” and discuss whether concerns over the so-called American “terrorists” who have been given political asylum by Cuba will be offset by the anti-Castro Cuban “terrorists” living in the U.S.

Part 3

Then with the Department of Education finally moving against a predatory for-profit college that misled students and falsified job placements, slapping Heald College with a $29.7 million fine, we speak with David Halperin, a senior fellow at Republic Report who was founding director of Campus Progress. We examine the recent remarks by Hillary Clinton, who has just started her 2016 presidential campaign, charging that these over-priced, low-quality diploma mills which are almost entirely subsidized by the taxpayer, are “ruining student’s lives”.