Our big story today — perhaps we do need a new manifesto for the “radical center” when it comes to relations with China. If you agree, then you’re in luck — on the show today, we’ll talk to Peter Kiernan, author of Becoming China’s Bitch: And Nine More Catastrophes We Must Avoid Right Now. China is becoming a hot political talking point, both from the Obama administration and the Republicans on the campaign trail. Kiernan says that “paranoia is appropriate for us in relation to China,” and is concerned about our support for their export-driven economy while they fund our deficits.
Thursday Megapanel: Karen Finney, Susan Del Percio and Jimmy Williams will be on set. We’ll talk about the latest out of Afghanistan, including the death of two more American soldiers. Why are we waiting around for one more fighting season instead of pulling out now — and the longer we stay, what are we hoping to accomplish? Also, our friends at Bank of America weighing new wave of fees on basic checking accounts — they’re looking at fees of up to $25! Didn’t they learn the first time they tried this? Apparently not. Here are more details on the proposed fees from the WSJ.
Our Thursday Specialist: Rep. Eddie Bernice, a Democrat from Texas joins Dylan and the Megapanel — she’ll tackle one sector of our search for the 30 Million Jobs we need. Increasingly, great jobs are coming from the engineering and science sectors — but with the U.S. ranked 48th in math and science worldwide, are we adequately preparing students for jobs? Rep. Bernice is a member of the Science, Space and Technology Committee — she argues we’re not adequately preparing our students to take on those jobs, and has some ideas about how we need to make changes. You can follow Rep. Bernice on Twitter @RepEBJ.
Then, are our safety nets for retired Americans starting to show some wear and tear? We’ll be joined by Sylvester Schieber, author of The Predictable Surprise: The Unraveling of the US Retirement System. Although the U.S. retirement debate affects 60 million Americans, our guest believes the arguments — and the system around it — are not well understood. We’ll talk about the future of Social Security, and how we can all cut through political rhetoric to identify reforms that could actually save the system.
Finally, comedian Jeff Kreisler is back with another edition of “Cheat Chat!”