Trump’s Tax Test, A Hunger Strike, Fusion Folk and Pop

Coming up on today’s show:

• On Wednesday, the Trump Administration unveiled an outline of the president’s tax plan, which calls for slashing the corporate tax rate and cutting taxes for most Americans. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former Congressional Budget Office director under George W. Bush, provides an analysis of the plan. 

• Former Democratic Maine Senator and Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell speaks to Takeaway Host John Hockenberry about President Trump’s first 100 days in office, and why healthcare has become an impossible legislative feat in Congress.

• Republican lawmakers in the House appear to be close to establishing a compromise bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act — a plan that could appeal to moderates like the “Tuesday Group” and satisfy conservatives in the Freedom Caucus. Takeaway Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich has the details. 

•  Thousands of people are in the streets of Venezuela demanding new elections and protesting food and medical shortages. Hannah Dreier, Venezuela correspondent for The Associated Press, discusses the growing intensity of a nation crumbling before her eyes.

• Some 1,500 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails have undertaken a hunger strike to protest the conditions of their captivity. Julie Norman, a research fellow and director of education at the Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security, and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast, just ended a month long investigation inside Israel and Palestine, and joins The Takeaway to discuss the hunger strike. 

• Indie pop band Sylvan Esso is out with a new album, “What Now.” The album, which drops this Friday, was made in 2016 and grapples with the chaos of a country looking inward. Amelia Meath and Nick Sandborn, the singer and producer for Sylvan Esso, discuss their creative process today on The Takeaway. 

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