Back to All-In Podcast

Rahm Emanuel: “You’re Not Democrats” — Taking on the DSA, Trump, China & America’s Future

All-In PodcastAugust 13, 20261h 11m
Topics49
Introduction to Rahm Emanuel0:00Lessons from Clinton and Obama Administrations1:30Exporting American Democracy and Culture5:00China Exporting Dysfunction5:30Economic Block Strategy Against China7:30China's Manufacturing and Energy Dominance11:00China's Strategy of Dependency12:00COVID-19 Vaccine Example13:30China's Life Sciences Investment14:30Software and Manufacturing Strategy15:30Building an Economic Block16:00Middle East Trends17:30Taiwan and Strategic Ambiguity20:30China's Current Aggression22:00South China Sea Priority23:30Three Strategies for Taiwan24:30Japan's Central Role26:30Japan-Taiwan Security and Regional Alliances27:49European Political Reactions and Immigration29:00Policy Decisions and Party Politics32:02Trump Administration Approach to Europe36:00Immigration Policy Framework38:30Point-Based Immigration and Assimilation Models42:01Foreign Student Policy and Economic Integration44:02Government Spending and Market Dynamics47:00Housing Policy and Local Government Barriers50:32Education System Reform Results53:00Teacher Training and Resource Allocation54:31Long-Term Education Reform Commitment55:00Universal Post-High School Education Requirements55:30Community College Modernization Proposal56:00Higher Education Cost Reform56:31Community College Integration with High School57:33Administrative Bloat in Higher Education58:31Reading Proficiency Crisis59:32Education Reform Cost Control1:00:00Third Grade Reading Crisis1:00:30Chicago Education Transformation1:01:01Chicago School System Transformation1:01:30Workforce Skills Shortage1:02:00Federal Budget and Fiscal Crisis1:02:30Economic Growth Framework1:03:34Community College Investment vs Detention Centers1:05:00Congressional Budget Politics1:05:30Crisis-Driven Reform Opportunity1:06:00Tax Code Reform Necessity1:07:00Minimum Wage Analysis1:08:00DSA Party Separation1:09:32Episode Conclusion1:11:02
In a Nutshell

Rahm Emanuel argues Democrats must reject the DSA as a separate party and return to Clinton-Obama-style moderation focused on effective government. He warns China's economic dysfunction and manufacturing dominance threaten U.S. competitiveness, requiring an allied economic bloc plus massive reinvestment in education, research, and domestic production rather than tariffs or isolation. The U.S. faces a fiscal reckoning from $40 trillion in debt, with solutions centered on controlling spending growth, reforming a tax code that rewards wealth preservation over creation, and modernizing community colleges while enforcing immigration laws that balance legal pathways with border security.

AI-Generated Notes

These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.

Rahm Emanuel served as senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, Obama's chief of staff, mayor of Chicago, and ambassador to Japan under President Biden. He has not made an official announcement about a presidential run in 2028. The interview covers the economy, inflation, employment, national debt, wars, socialism, antisemitism, and immigration.

Clinton and Obama were the last two sane presidents who were moderates with an affirmative view of government. Progressive policies require people to believe government can function effectively. The last time government had a net positive view was under Bill Clinton, which shifted when he signed welfare reform.

Bill Clinton integrated policy, politics, and press in three-dimensional chess. He redefined the presidency for the 21st century like Teddy Roosevelt had done previously. Clinton was skilled at communicating policy to carry people from where they were to change without making change threatening.

Obama understood America was at a pivotal and transitional moment at the end of the Iraq War and during the financial meltdown. Every president is judged by the world they inherited versus the world they leave behind. The harshest critics of both Obama and Clinton come from the left, not the right.

Post-Reagan, Clinton's economy grew the most, jobs grew the most, and income disparity shrunk the most. The United States became the uni-power economically, politically, and militarily. Obama saved America from what was close to a depression, transitioning from losing 800,000 jobs to creating 200,000 jobs, and got America out of two wars.

The United States has four tools in its national security toolbox: military power, political persuasion, economic statecraft, and cultural attraction. America's culture and brand serve as cultural attraction. The current president has hurt the American brand, economic statecraft, market, technology, universities, research, and national labs.

The United States is the only world power that could get Russia and Ukraine around the table. America's political persuasion is an asset in its national security toolbox. Only the United States can achieve a 23-state solution in the Middle East.

America's brand under Trump is in the toilet, which hurts America's political power, economic statecraft, and military capabilities. The problem is not that America was exporting cultural things that caused current issues.

China's largest export is not autos or electronics but domestic economic dysfunction. China is crushing other countries' manufacturing and industrial bases across the world. China has more WTO cases than any other country, with all of them combined against China.

Examples include Chile's steel plant, Indonesia's garment plant, and Brazil's four burn furnaces. Xi refuses to deal with the real estate bubble popping, a consumer that's flat on their back, and an industrial base that makes no rational sense. China's auto industry is now exporting more cars while profits are down 20%.

The United States is exporting political and cultural dysfunction onto the world. Trump met with the neo-Nazi AFD party in Germany 9 days before the German election, and there were race tensions in Great Britain. The two superpowers are holding the world hostage through economic dysfunction.

Rather than tariffs, the United States should create an economic block so all countries together can withstand China. The approach should organize this economic block and then meet China in the marketplace. This is how to win friends and influence enemies.

China is on their way to 8 terawatts of electricity production while the United States is hovering around 1 terawatt and finding it hard to get to 2 by 2040. China has 20 times the manufacturing square footage as the US, much of it automated.

With AI and open sourcing AI, China is dampening capacity to compete in manufacturing, molecules, pharmaceuticals, and materials. China is effectively eliminating capacity to compete in knowledge, services, and IP, which has been the heart of the US economy for the last 30 years.

When Xi came to power, the United States bought into the win-win narrative that was never genuine. China's theory is that they want everybody dependent on China and them independent. China wants markets to be so big and important that other countries cannot do anything about it, making their economies dependent on Chinese markets.

China will leverage that dependency to destroy, manipulate, and control other countries' sovereignty. China will be independent with multiple options. When the United States cut off soybeans, China got soybeans from Brazil and Argentina. China has duplicity in the system with maximum latitude and minimum for others.

The United States developed a vaccine with 90 plus percent efficacy within 12-14 months through Operation Warp Speed. China took 18-19 months with 60% efficacy. Chinese leaders were not taking the Chinese vaccine but taking Pfizer and Moderna quietly. China could not export their vaccine because nobody in the third world wanted it.

Xi made a decision that will never happen again to massively invest in life sciences. Within 5 years, China was not just nipping at America's heels but in pursuit in life sciences, a place the United States had dominated outside of one or two examples in Europe.

Every budget Trump proposed had a 40% cut in NIH, with Republicans allowing 15% cuts. A pancreatic drug on the market came from NIH funding and is now looking like it will address three or four other cancers.

The NIH, National Science Foundation, DARPA, America's national labs, and national universities are America's crown jewel. The administration is declaring war and involved in unilateral disarmament.

The United States is dominant in software and tech spaces. The approach should not be either software or manufacturing but both. The United States allowed manufacturing to atrophy and allowed commercialization of national security. The Business Roundtable and Chamber of Commerce way over-influenced national security vis-a-vis China when industry by industry and supply chain by supply chain moved offshore.

The strategy for the next 20 years is to aggregate Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, EU, and friends in Latin America. The United States should get more friends and not declare war on Brazil, which is a big economy in the region. The economic block makes China isolated, isolating the isolator.

The block should be used to organize research and capacity to build up what has been allowed to atrophy. The defense industry, new technology entrepreneurs, venture capital, and DARPA research arm will produce results if given 5 years, as long as Raytheon and General Dynamics do not kill it and the Pentagon nurtures it.

There are three trends in the Middle East. The UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait are staying with the United States. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Turkey, and Qatar look like they're hedging because they know they're reliant on America but are not going to be so dependent that they're vulnerable due to lack of leadership in two wars.

The India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor keeps everybody coming closer to the United States economically and politically. Iran invested 40 years and 40 billion plus in proxies. Hamas is degraded to defeat, Hezbollah is cornered, Damascus and Syria has been lost, and the Iraqi president is making headway on dealing with militias.

Lebanese government is working with Israel on cornering Hezbollah. Syria, with a non-Assad president, is now talking to Israel about a security agreement. Jordan peace, Egypt peace, and Syria security agreement would mean the three forces from the six-day war all came to resolution with Israel.

Syria will be the outlaw of a pipeline from Basra to their port for energy around the Strait of Hormuz. Major players in the Gulf would be part of the economic block.

Politics around Taiwan are kept ambiguous, but using kinetic force to change the status quo is not ambiguous. There are two different parts to Taiwan policy: the political statement and the prohibition on changing the status quo through force.

China is watching the United States bog down in the Strait of Hormuz with resources allocated. China's confrontation with Philippines has picked up dramatically. China is more aggressive economically, militarily, and politically in Japan. China is doing things around the Senkaku Islands that are more aggressive, fired a live missile from a submarine around Australia, and is more aggressive toward Vietnam and other allies.

China is sending a message to allies Korea, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Philippines, and Vietnam that their protector is no more. The White House has become a one-ball juggler consumed with what's going on and has lost focus on the Indo-Pacific.

The South China Sea is more immediate than Taiwan. Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia show China's behavior creating islands out of the shoals. China lost the court case in 2016 claiming the South China Sea as their backwater. Philippines is not Taiwan but a country and treaty ally that won the 2016 case.

China has three strategies for Taiwan. One is economic quarantine that suffocates Taiwan. Two is invasion that tries to end this in 96 hours. Three is taking over three islands off mainland China's coast associated with Taiwan - a rock, a butterfly, and a tree with a fisherman.

China has done all three strategies historically with different countries. The United States must be prepared for all three. For the 96-hour invasion, the United States must say there will be 96 days and have resources to make it not one and done quickly.

For quarantine, the United States must show through resources in Philippines and Okinawa Islands that a quarantine cannot work through air and naval means. For the little islands off Japan and China, the United States must project deterrence before events occur.

Japan is the long pole of America's Indo-Pacific policy. The Quad includes India, Australia, Japan, and the United States. The trilateral relationship between Korea, Japan, and the United States was worked on previously. The United States has its largest military footprint in the world in a single country in Japan, with an aircraft carrier permanently based there.

For the last five years in a row, Japan has been the number one direct foreign investor in the United States, and the United States has been the number one direct foreign investor in Japan.

Japan serves as the constant anchor in multiple US-led security arrangements including the Quad with India, Australia, and the United States, the trilateral between Korea, Japan, and the United States, and the alliance between the United States, Japan, and the Philippines. The United States maintains its largest military footprint in a single country at Okinawa, Japan, and has the only permanently based aircraft carrier in the world there. Cultural ties between the two countries include shared baseball traditions.

Japanese Prime Minister publicly stated that a move on Taiwan would constitute a national security threat, a position the United States had sought for thirty years. China responded with economic coercion, political coercion, and military intimidation. The administration's support for yen intervention serves self-interest regarding US treasuries and dollars amid debt pressure. Military training exercises with Russia and China around the Saku Islands lack US presence.

Europe faces a reaction to open border policies and economic stagnation similar to dynamics in the United States. The AfD party in Germany operates under German intelligence agency watch. Immigration has played a role alongside stagnating incomes and greater concentration of wealth, with 63% of Americans now living paycheck to paycheck, fundamentally changing politics and cultural landscapes.

Former Italian Prime Minister Draghi authored a plan for the EU. Strong European economies serve American security and economic prosperity interests, with Europe needing to contribute as active participants rather than hangers-on in the Western system.

Europe has made policy decisions not in citizens' best interests. Germany's nuclear power shutdown following the Japan meltdown increased dependence on Russian energy, a decision made by Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union. Merkel's decision to accept one million Syrian refugees came from the conservative CDU party, not leftist policies.

The characterization of policies as exclusively leftist overlooks Angela Merkel's conservative party affiliation and decisions on nuclear power and immigration. Brussels' regulatory approach has suffocated innovation, entrepreneurship, and competitiveness, though attempts to correct this are underway.

The Trump administration exacerbates European tensions rather than collaborating on shared challenges. Germany loses 5,000 to 10,000 manufacturing jobs monthly to Chinese pressure, representing an opportunity for joint US-European action against China that remains unexploited. The vice president's meeting with AfD nine days before the election and responses to race issues in Great Britain and domestic challenges facing Meloni demonstrate a pattern of interference.

Trump punches down toward middle powers like Lula in Brazil, Meloni, Carney, or Shin Bom while seeking admiration from Putin and Xi, who view him as inferior. The approach stems from personal insecurities rather than strategic calculation.

A legislative solution remains possible based on principles of being both a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. The Dignity Act, co-sponsored by 23 Republicans and 23 Democrats in the House, addresses both legal and illegal immigration without representing either the ideal bill for sponsors or critics.

Historical enforcement includes Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego, Operation Safeguard in Nogales, Arizona, and El Paso initiatives, plus workplace enforcement resources. The approach requires tough borders and tough enforcement.

The Dignity Act tilts slightly toward Republican positions given current majority status, with potential for adjustment. Leadership from the White House remains essential, beyond campaign rhetoric that failed to deliver on Dreamers or green cards on diplomas.

Canada and Denmark provide better models than Japan for US immigration policy. Japan's 98% homogeneous society with only 3.7 million immigrants makes direct comparison inappropriate. Canada's point system and Denmark's approach offer relevant lessons.

The Dignity Act incorporates some point-based elements. Control of the border signals that law-breaking receives no rewards. The 2020 Democratic debate position offering healthcare to people crossing illegally created political damage given American families' healthcare cost pressures.

Universities could admit up to 20% foreign students who pay full tuition, subsidizing American students' education costs and enabling three-year bachelor's degrees instead of four-year programs. Foreign students who study in the United States show higher likelihood of remaining and contributing economically through technology and other companies.

The university system historically attracted immigrants and children of immigrants but remains underutilized as a political and economic asset.

Government spending programs correlate with price increases in housing, education, and healthcare. Housing inflation averages 5% annually, education exceeds 6%, and healthcare reaches 5.15%, compared to 2.5% general inflation over thirty years. Government housing support totals $300 billion annually, education support $200 billion, and healthcare nearly $2 trillion.

Markets without government intervention in technology, energy, food, and consumer services demonstrate cost decreases. The GI Bill following World War II drove massive increases in housing ownership and education access. Agricultural subsidies support food production, and energy tax write-offs for drilling represent government involvement.

Local zoning, building, and permitting laws in San Francisco and New York restrict supply and drive costs upward. A Chicago mayor could benchmark zoning and building laws against Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix, removing unjustified restrictions.

First-time home ownership remains the critical housing problem since the 2008 financial crisis, with markets focusing on high and low ends while new construction for entry-level buyers stagnates. Public-private collaboration may address this twenty-year problem the private sector alone has not resolved.

Chicago's education reforms achieved Stanford recognition as the single best urban school system among the top 100. Graduation rates increased from 56% to 83%. Reading and math scores at elementary levels advanced six months ahead of peers. Louisiana represents the only state returning to pre-COVID reading and math levels.

Mississippi demonstrated success at elementary levels. Full-day kindergarten and free full-day pre-K were implemented with emphasis on early childhood education. Universal accountability extends beyond teachers to include parents, principals, and schools. Teacher education and training requires continuous rather than one-time approaches.

Give teachers the support so they know what to do on the subjects they're supposed to do. Constantly train them. Redo and reboot the entire teacher training program starting at our colleges. Braid the resources together so states and cities can meld it because what happens on the south side or west side of Chicago or what happens in our suburbs or what happens in some of our best schools like North Side and Payton just isn't the same students and poor students need more resources but accountability through the system.

Nobody wants to talk about it. Guess what? You got to be at this every day. This is a 20-year project, not a two-year project. That's what Mississippi and Louisiana showed us. High school fundamental reform. Elementary stay with the fundamentals. High school, we drove 50% of our kids, which was our goal. We're graduating with college credit on high school day.

I'd set a goal as if I decide to do this. 100% of our kids will graduate high school with college credit through dual credit and dual enrollment with our local community colleges of which are 1,200. Second, we're the only school district in America that set this up and I to make it a national requirement. Nobody graduates and gets a high school diploma without showing a letter of acceptance from a college, a community college, a branch of the armed forces or vocational school. Every child, not just Jason, David, and Rams, has a plan. They know where they're walking to when they're walking on graduation day. Universal post high school education.

We hired a huge amount of college careers in the city of Chicago, but we accomplished 98% compliance with it. Third, take $8 billion you're wasting on detention centers at the ICE and modernize our community college systems, both the campuses, the curriculum, and the relevancy it has to the industries in and around.

Finally, fifth, higher education 20% foreign students. They're allowed up to two identify 10% of the stuff that you do pay for in complying with the federal government. You keep 100% of those dollars. Three, if a child graduates with 20 college credits from high school, that child is open to a three-year BA, not a four-year, saving mom and dad, the equivalent of a full year of tuition. Oxford and Cambridge do three-year BAs. Second, if your income is below 200,000, you're going to go to college for free. Fourth or third finally in that area if your income's above 200,000 it does each year doesn't go above inflation that's what I would do on education get kids minimum four years ideally three in universal prek return to the fundamentals stay at it bring accountability and standards back into the school system revamp our high school years into college career not just diploma driven with two to three examples.

The best one I also did first and only school district, first city to do it. You got to be average in high school. We made community college free. The goal here is to take the high school years when you lose students and the community colleges and meld them so kids are graduating high school with college credit prepared for the next step in their life. 80% of all the jobs require some education, minimum of two years post high school. And we've done nothing to revamp our high school years since Teddy Roosevelt.

No child, no student of any income or background is left out of that. You want to go to college and then be an engineer, great. You want to be a nurse, you want to be a carpenter. As you pour more of these dollars into the community colleges, into the federal student loan program, the administrative staff continues to bloat. We've seen administrative staff grow from 10% to 60% in the last 30 years as they've had no limits on spending because the federal student loan program doesn't provide a criteria that says if your tuition costs too much, if your school isn't that good, etc., etc., we restrict your access to this loan program. The loan program is so unrestricted that it provides a fuel for the fire.

You haven't addressed the fact that 50% of our kids can't read at grade level. The way you asked that question told me where your priorities are. Your priority is higher education. I'm not talking about how do you get to higher education? Well, I get you're not talking about it, but there's a lot of parents sitting around the kitchen table talking about it. I'm talking about cost and higher education. That's it. That's all I'm talking about.

I just gave you a plan. Ask anybody that gets on your show. I just gave you a plan of how to control costs. None of it dealt with the student loan program. It dealt with the fact that we cut our nose off despite our face by not letting foreign students come in and pay full price, which are squeezing our colleges. You get up to 20%. You decide how you want to do it. You can identify 10% of the savings that you comply with federal government. You keep 100% of the cost. But here's what you're going to do different.

You want to get to college? Revamp what goes on in not only the elementary years, but the high school years. You know, when kids drop out of college, David, third grade. That's when they start dropping out. And when you have 50% of your kids not reading at grade level, college cost is not your problem. We're going to compete against China with 50% of our kids not reading. I'm sorry, that's not how you beat a country that's three times your size.

Yes, we need to fix that issue. But like just taking a zoom out and my concern arises kids drop out of college in third grade. I'm not talking about dropping out of college. I'm talking about how much we spend on administrative in colleges and how much we've allowed it to inflate and that ultimately leads to a cost and an accessibility problem to higher education. Rahm because as it gets to be 30 40 60 $80,000 a year for a kid to go to school. Two things you are talking about costs that is a problem to me. The problem is that we've given up on 50% of our kids. Given up a fair statement. It's a fair statement. Okay, it what you identified is a problem. I'm identifying the problem.

Number two, in my view, I have spent more time on the subject of education. I wanted to be an early childhood educator when I went to college and I took a system that William Bennett called the single worst in America to where Shawn R and Stanford called it the single best of the top 100 and it took everything of my soul to get it there. We need to take the high school years, let alone the standards and accountability in the elementary years, and revamp them as in the three things I talked about that fit together. B average, community college is free. 50% which I would set as a goal is 100 have to graduate with college credit under their belt. And third, nobody gets a diploma that doesn't tell us what they're doing next. College, community college, branch of the armed forces, certification school.

I'm not just about college. You're 500 to 600,000 electricians short just for data centers. Broadband 150,000. You can't build submarines because we don't have pipe fitters and plumbers. Okay. So, I'm You want to be a pipe fitter? Great. You want to be a physician? Great. You want to be a physical therapist? Great. Have an education system that actually reflects the economy and skills that we need.

Yeah, that's a good point. And my concern, Rahm, comes from since you get the you make a lot of great points and you make some that I disagree with, but that's what we're all about. And as I zoom out, I mean, I look at our $7 trillion a year spend in the federal government, 5 trillion a year in revenue. We're 2 trillion short. We've got 40 trillion in debt, 30 years at 5%. That's 2 trillion a year in interest expense. We have to figure out a way to reconcile the fiscal condition of the federal government to have a future for our kids. And so for me, every everything comes down to this like cost model. And I'm like, where are we spending money that we're inflating costs and it doesn't make sense to do it. So I have a slate. Look, and by the way, Rahm, this was something that Trump promised he would do with Doge and other cuts and it was all it was all snake oil salesman.

Look, I don't accept redistribution and I don't accept the corruption. You can't have capitalism or economic freedom with corruption as a grounding principle. It's against the rule of law which is key to capitalism and economic freedom and redistribution doesn't solve anything as it relates to growth. I believe in five things that are essential to grow the economy and grow incomes and so people are no longer living paycheck to paycheck. One, everything we've just talked about on education and training from prek to BA. Two, the dignity act as I said as it relates to immigration. Three, modernize our energy system. Visav Texas is the best example in the United States. And I said that three, four, 10% levy on all predictive markets and online sport gaming and it has to go to the NIH, National Science Foundation, and DARPA. Double our dollars into research. Fifth, a tax code that does not reward wealth preservation, but wealth creation. This tax code is an abomination as it relates to economic freedom. Control the overall spending for the next 5 years so it can't grow and start making some tough choices within the system.

I told you, you don't support it. I would not spend $38 billion on detention centers nobody wants. I would take eight of it as a starting point and modernize the 1,200 community colleges throughout the country that are the economic backbone of Lacrosse, Wisconsin, Spartanberg, South Carolina. Go down the list. I've seen it firsthand because we did it in our community colleges. The World Bank called it the best college career program in America. That to me is what we should be doing. And we're going to make some tough choices. I don't believe in sending ICE agents out with $50,000 bonuses when I'd rather give a bonus to signing up to be a carpenter electrician. That's more important to America's future than some mass man running around the streets of Minneapolis.

What's the politics of this? How do you get Congress to come along? Because for years, we've heard a lot of points from both parties about we are going to rationalize spending. We are going to do the right thing. We are going to get ourselves out of the deficit. We are going to make things economically viable for the United States for people are going to advance. Everyone's got great ideas, but when push comes to shove, representatives of their district or of their state end up saying, "I'm going to give more to my people in order to get reelected." And the budget goes up and up and up.

David, David, here's the thing which is unfortunate about American politics. As a person that coined the term never allow a good crisis to go to waste. It's the opportunity to do big thing. Look, I believe the surplus created sloppiness that Bill Clinton left. We try to fight two wars with two tax cuts. Really stupid. Never been done in American history. And that's the beginning of a wild. We went from a surplus that Alan Greenspan described would be a danger to America because of the 10 year Treasury note to running $38 trillion of deficit from a surplus to that because it was reckless. We fought Iraq and Afghanistan with two tax cuts. Never tried in American history. And it proved to be stupid. Now that crisis has come and due and it's going to force some really tough things on the system and no and we cannot have while also AI is hovering a further concentration of wealth to a very few can't happen because you can't get to the fiscal sensibility you want just talking about cutting not just because of the politics because it's not right and it won't work. So, we're going to have to actually deal with the revenue side as well as the spend side.

I gave you a cap, but we have a tax code that everybody on this show, me included, are rewarded for preserving wealth, passing it on. There was a story the other day in the Wall Street Journal 6 weeks ago. Retreats are being organized to help kids figure out how to handle their inheritance. Yeah, you have got to be kidding me. And we have a tax code that favors that. You you get you are an idiot if you don't take advantage of pres of actually preserving your wealth and passing it on for one generation another. And you all know this. We all know it. The step up basis is a way to avoid to all taxes when everybody else is working for a living and can't make monthly pay bills. So it's going to hit everybody and you're going to make some changes.

One thing I was as most capitalists not concerned with was minimum wage because I just thought well the free market will work that out. And then after watching it raise in cities in the United States and what's going on in New Zealand and the Nordic countries, all of the studies now show when you go to 12 to $20 an hour, there's no difference. Doesn't cause any economic hardship for those companies and it doesn't cause unemployment or automation. So what's your take on the federal minimum wage being raised? Three things. I worked with Bill Clinton when we raised it. When Nancy Pelosi and I helped make her a speaker, that was the last time it was raised. It was seven and a quarter. When I was mayor, I raised it. I'm a big believer, not only that, raising the minimum wage. I would raise it and have it go up each year as we did in Chicago coupled with a very generous earned income tax credit. That's what makes work pay. So, a minimum wage with a very robust earned income tax credit of which I would, if I was magic, you know, waving a magic wand, I would take the earned income tax credit, the per child tax deduction and do a single family credit. So, it's all in one thing.

I think we should talk about DSA DSA before we wrap. You know, last weekend in Chicago, the DSA held their convention. You're not Democrats. You're a separate party. I'll see you in November. You're living, you're literally beating Democrats. Forget about it. Not interested in I spent my whole life Bill Clinton replacing George Bush, Barack Obama competing against John McCain, flipping 31 districts from red congressman to blue congressman so Nancy Pelosi would be a speaker. I am not into turning a blue district midnight blue. It doesn't do anything for minimum wage. It doesn't do anything for universal prek. It doesn't do anything to give 10 million children who didn't have healthcare healthcare. So, I'm not impressed. You are a separate party. You're the Democratic Socialist of America. I'll see you in November on the ballot. You had a party convention. You are not a Democrat. And there was a person the other day in Tom Edel's party and Tom Metsel's column who a justice Democrat part of the DSA network who said they're not interested in beating Republicans. Well, now I appreciate the honesty. I am I think Donald Trump is an existential crisis. You think Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi or Hakeim Jeff are an existential crisis? I don't. And we have a fundamental strategic difference. We have a fundamental policy difference and we have a fundamental political difference. Go to your own party. Stay there. I'll see you in November.

There you have it, folks. Over to now with Rahm Emanuel. We will have you back in the coming months and years as you will as this has been amazing and we got to get you on with Chimoth and Sachs next. Thanks guys. All right, besties. I think that was another epic discussion. People love the interviews. I could hear him talk for hours. Absolutely. We crushed your questions in a minute. We are giving people ground truth data to underwrite your own opinion. What did you guys think? That was fun. That was great.

Keep All-In Podcast in your library

Save the videos and channels worth coming back to, and find them again in one place.