The first Republican primary debate is in the books — or, perhaps, we should call it the first episode of the Republican presidential reality show?
Will Swaim and Eric Boehm try to make some sense of Thursday's debate on this week's edition of the Watchdog Podcast. Did Trump show that he deserves to be the frontrunner? Can any of these candidates really deliver on the promise of smaller government and controlled spending in Washington?
Later, Boehm sits down with Maurice McTigue of the Mercatus Center to discuss a major bit of news that was lost in the media's frothing over the presidential debate: the debt crisis in Puerto Rico.
The American territory defaulted on a debt payment this week, but McTigue explains that the situation has been brewing for a long time — the result of poor choices made by politicians more interested in getting elected than actually dealing with the island's unsustainable levels of debt (sound familiar?)
Bankruptcy could be part of the solution for Puerto Rico, but it's not allowed to pursue bankruptcy unless Congress allows it to do so. McTigue says lawmakers in Washington should get on that, but bankruptcy won't solve anything unless politicians in Puerto Rico are committed to cutting red tape and making the island more attractive to business.
In other news this week: Pennsylvania's top prosecutor is now a defendant, and environmentalists are rebelling against green energy mandates in Vermont.
All that, plus our Nanny State of the Week, on this edition of the Watchdog Podcast.