Heidi Heitkamp Talks Filibuster, Biden’s First Year

On today’s episode, Sarah and Steve speak with Heidi Heitkamp, former North Dakota senator and ...

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On today’s episode, Sarah and Steve speak with Heidi Heitkamp, former North Dakota senator and founder of One Country Project. They cover everything from the filibuster to President Biden’s first year in office. What doesn’t work about the Senate? Can Biden turn things around before the midterms?

Heidi Heitkamp says President Biden should apologize to Sen. Mitt Romney:

“If I were Joe Biden today I would call Mitt Romney and I would apologize and I would say, ‘I never intended to paint with a broad brushstroke. There is a lot of bad stuff going out there would you agree to help me pull together a commission that’s looking at these things from the perspective of getting everybody to vote?’”

Heitkamp disagrees with critics of how Biden has handled COVID:

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  1. Avatar photo
    Tom Kalbach

    It's always valuable to listen to a long form reasonable (i.e. 'non-shouty') conversation with those that I disagree with, if only to remind myself of the specifics of why I disagree with them.

    (paraphrasing)
    Heitkamp: Let's ask why prescription drug prices (specifically insulin) are so high.
    (Tom's thoughts): good start, this could lead to something.
    Heitkamp: The solution is to cap the price!
    (Tom's thoughts): wait, what? you didn't even attempt to answer the question that you just asked and, instead, jumped to a solution of price controls (which is a pretty drastic step that I'm pretty sure has its' own set of significant downsides)

    I understand that the conversation was not meant to be a debate on specific policies, but rather a discussion of how to incentivize a healthier federal gov't (whatever that means), but hoo-boy did this grind my gears.

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  2. Jon Hamilton

    This was a great ep and I loved her takes. Would be very happy to hear more from Heidi. Disappointing that someone thoughtful and practical like her has no place in government.

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  3. Roger Ellis

    Heitkamp is the rare refreshing politician that doesn't blab the party line. Once a quarter for her would be good.

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  4. Avatar photo
    The Stray Goose

    Things I learned:
    Heitkamp's ego is enormous. I never had an opinion of her before, now I don't like her (politically).
    I agreed with very little of what she said.
    We've now had two 'stream of consciousness' presidents. Maybe the next president can be more like Silent Cal.
    She could change 'ONE THING' about the tax code and didn't go with a flat tax. Instead she wants to 'lessen the burden' for 'small businesses' - as defined by her. That's what's wrong! Flat tax now!
    The Dispatch should get her and Ben Sasse to debate 'fixes' for the Senate. There might be some good ides to come from it.
    If you want to 'fix' the filibuster, make the senator stand for the entire time. No breaks.
    Heitkamp thinks Biden isn't too partisan.
    "Obscene bumper stickers" are "Let's go Brandon"??? Does that makes sense? No. It doesn't. You can take out Trump's admin and only look at both Bush's and Reagan's administrations: The Democrats said things considerably worse than "Let's go Brandon". And now me thinks the lady doth protest too much. I'm disappointed the Sarah and Steve said they 'totally' understand. I wish they'd pushed back on these statements that didn't make sense.

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  5. CrowdA

    Really loved this episode! As someone on the left, I really love hearing you guys interview people more on my side of the issues - it helps me to think more critically about partisan narratives and talking points coming from the Dems.

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    Mary

    These episodes with D’s are why I listen to the all the Dispatch interviews. The Dispatch pod has honest, fantastic conversations with people I support like Heitkamp which means I listen with an open, trusting mind to the interviews of people I disagree with. Very enjoyable pod for me personally.

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  7. Gabriel Salas

    More of this. A lot more of this. Thanks!

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    PaulH

    I very much enjoyed this podcast. As often occurs on dispatch site podcasts, there were brief discussions of the changes that Republicans have made to election procedures that might affect the vote counting or administration of elections. I think it would be really helpful if someone would write an article or do a podcast that focused on these changes (and not stuff like early voting or absentee ballots). In other words a detailed look at exactly what changes have been made at the state and county level, how those procedures are different from other states, how this could actually play out, what role the courts might have etc. It seems like there is some serious concern by a number of Dispatch contributors (David, Sarah, Chris, Steve etc.), but if there has been a piece or a pod which really does a deep dive on the matter, I haven't seen it.

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    1. Fudrock

      Ballotpedia.org is a great resource for this sort of thing. Just the facts.
      https://ballotpedia.org/Changes_in_2021_to_laws_governing_ballot_measures

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      1. Avatar photo
        PaulH

        This is an interesting resource, but it has more to do with ballot measures.

        And, frankly, I don't have time to sort through all of the various changes myself and have little context to be able to analyze the potential impact of changes. That is why I subscribe to The Dispatch!

        My point (or plea) is that since lots of Dispatch contributors think this is a real issue, I would very much like them to do a deep dive rather than just making shorthand allusions to the problem from time to time.

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  9. Avatar photo
    Marc

    I felt like I was listening to an interview for a Biden administration position.

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    1. Avatar photo
      PaulH

      It was pretty clear from one of her asides (something to the effect of "this is not sour grapes"), that the interview she had did not go well.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Jason Gibson

    Did Steve Hayes use an illustration from a movie/pop culture?????

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