Tonight on All In with Chris Hayes: President Obama made a policy pivot Wednesday afternoon with a major speech on the state of the economy and his plans to continue the recovery. He focused on ideas to improve the economic situation for the middle class, including making education more affordable, restoring both job and retirement security, making home ownership more attainable and improving opportunities for upward mobility. Gene Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, will join Chris Hayes to discuss the president’s plans.
Plus: Rep. Steve King of Iowa is in hot water over comments he made about young immigrants. “For everyone who’s a valedictorian,” he said, “there’s another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.” Jose Diaz-Balart, Telemundo Network News Anchor and host of Enfoque, Telemundo’s Sunday morning public affairs show, will join the table to talk about Rep. King’s comments and the backlash they’ve elicited from his own party.
Later, Chris Hayes will delve into Wednesday’s House vote on an amendment that would block the National Security Agency from spying on Americans’ phone calls. The vote marks Congress’s first formal judgment on the NSA’s surveillance program since it was leaked in June.
President Obama also spoke about raising the minimum wage in his speech on the economy Wednesday. Dorian Warren, Professor at Columbia University, Co-Director of the Columbia Program on Labor Law and Policy and Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, Lew Prince, small business owner of Vintage Vinyl Inc., in St. Louis, Missouri, and Shenita Simon-Toussaint, minimum wage worker at Kentucky Fried Chicken, will join the conversation.
Rachel Simon
Rachel Simon is a writer and editor based in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of “Pickleball for All: Everything but the ‘Kitchen’ Sink.” Her work has been published in The New York Times, Glamour, Vulture, Teen Vogue and more. You can find her at @rsimon113.