Budget and Tax News Podcast

Scott Beyer, a journalist who focuses on American urban issues, joins the podcast to talk about his three-year cross-country trip, during which he lived in 30 cities for a month each to write a book about Market Urbanism. He discusses the problems of housing affordability and homelessness as well as cities that are successful, such as Houston, Texas. Beyer owns a media company called The Market Urbanism Report, which is dedicated to advancing market-oriented policy reforms in cities. Beyer's articles and commentaries have been published by The Atlantic, National Review, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, City Journal, American Magazine, Reason Magazine, and the Cato Institute. His work is collected at MarketUrbanismReport.com.

Brian Thomas, Executive Director of Citizens for Accountable Taxation, joins Lennie Jarratt to discuss why the property taxes in New Jersey are so high, what has been done to attempt to control them, why that has failed, and some plans for the future. Thomas discussed how school districts are the driving force behind the ever increasing taxes aided by policies coming out of the legislature in Trenton. These bad policies are causing an ever increasing emigration of taxpayers and businesses. The emigration has been heavily middle class, but is now including millennials, retirees, and the wealthy, including Bon Jovi. This is causing New Jersey to have the highest foreclosure rate in the country.

Tom Giovanetti, president of the Institute for Policy Innovation, joins the podcast to talk about the one-year anniversary of the end of net neutrality, the restoration of internet freedom, intellectual property, the rollout of 5G, and rural broadband.

The president of Ziebarth & Associates joins the podcast to talk about U.S. freight and passenger rail, high-speed rail networks in Europe and Asia, and projects in the U.S.

The news media is facing increased scrutiny, rightfully so, during the Trump presidency. How has the news gotten to where it is today?

Former Texas State Sen. Konni Burton joins the podcast to discuss some of the issues she championed in the Senate, such as banning local governments in Texas from using taxpayers’ money to hire firms to lobby their own state legislators.

George Jamerson, Director of Government Relations at the Heartland Institue joins the podcast to talk about some of the issues facing state legislators today, and the assistance and support Heartland’s government relations team provides.

Mark Skousen joins the podcast to discuss his book, "The Making of Modern Economics," which tells the heroic story of free market economics from Adam Smith to modern times.

James Barth and Shen Zhang join the podcast to discuss their paper, “Opportunity Zones for Economic Development and Job Creation: The ‘Nuts and Bolts’ and a Look at Alabama.”

Merrill Matthews joins the podcast to discuss his new book, coauthored with Mark E. Litow, on the crisis facing the United States due to the growing cost and unfunded promises of entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Robert Lawson joins the podcast to discuss his annual report on Economic Freedom of the World and his forthcoming book, Socialism Sucks.

Seth Giertz, senior research fellow with the Colloquium for the Advancement of Free-Enterprise Education, joins the podcast to talk about home prices and property taxes.

Dean Stansel joins the show to discuss his “U.S. Metropolitan Area Economic Freedom Index.” Where are the freest areas in the United States?

Lt. Col. Allen B. West, U.S. Army (ret), joins the podcast to talk about Up from Slavery, the autobiography of the founder and president of the Tuskegee Institute.

Jonathan Bydlak, head of the Coalition to Reduce Spending and a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute, joins the show to discuss SpendingTracker.org