#89 The GOP and Tax Reform Revisited w/ Brian Riedl

The Road to Now

Benjamin Sawyer

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2018

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The debate over taxation and the economy is an argument that is as old as the nation itself. In our previous episode, historian Robert McElvaine argued that the tax reform of 2017 reflected the types of conservative policies that helped bring about the Great Depression. In this episode, we turn to the Manhattan Institute's Brian Riedl to get a different perspective on taxation and its role in the economy since the 20th Century. Riedl explains the evidence that led him to advocate for small government, and breaks down why the 2017 tax reform is not quite as conservative as some commentators have suggested.

Brian Riedl is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a member of MI's Economics21, focusing on budget, tax, and economic policy. Previously, he worked for six years as chief economist to Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) and as staff director of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth. He also served as a director of budget and spending policy for Marco Rubio's presidential campaign and was the lead architect of the ten-year deficit-reduction plan for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on this and all other episodes of our podcast, visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Bob Crawford, joined by Dr. Ben Sawyer.
0:18.8	Ben, how's your bracket?
0:20.0	Oh, well, my bracket's doing well because I went all in with the heart over the head and pick Michigan State to win it all. Or the head of the Michigan State hat that you're wearing right now. That's true. That's true. It is on my head, but it is my heart on my head. But, you know, it was really hard, and this is what's funny. When I picked that, I was like, what idiot doesn't pick UVA to win at all? They've lost two games all year. And then last night, my wife texted me. I was at a comedy show. My wife texted me and was just like, oh my God. And history has been made, ladies and gentlemen, history has been made.
0:54.6	Well, this idiot did pick me a NBA and my bracket is busted.
1:01.5	I'm done.
1:02.2	I'm out.
1:02.7	Sorry to hear that, Bob.
1:03.9	I'm sorry to hear that.
1:04.6	But it's like, but it's like, you know, as much as you hate it because, you know,
1:08.1	two years ago, my current employer, MTSU, played my
1:11.4	alma mater, Michigan State in the first round. And Michigan State was picked by a lot of people to win, and it hurt. And it did bust my bracket. But I got to say the joy of experiencing a moment like that, it is kind of cool. It's the first time ever. You got at least you feel good about that, right? Right? I got to say I'll be pulling for UNC, which I don't think is going to go much further than the Sweet 16 if they get there.
1:33.9	But if Winthrop, my alma mater played UNC, I'd probably pull for Winthrop.
1:39.9	Yeah, you got to go with where your feet have been and your heart is.
1:45.0	That's right.
1:46.0	Okay.
1:46.7	Well, speaking about where we've been, last week we aired an episode on economics with Robert McElvane from Millsaps College.
1:55.8	And he's a progressive economist.
1:58.8	He's really, he's really a historian of the 1920s and 30s, Great Depression being one of his areas of expertise, but he believes very solidly lays out the case that it was Republican economic orthodoxy that got us into the Great Depression, in a partly at least,
2:20.5	and it is the same orthodoxy we see today with the Trump tax cuts.
2:26.2	We didn't get any comments on the tariff because that's just happened, but these tax cuts
2:31.1	were very, were very Coolidge-esque.
2:34.5	And the tariff is very Smoot-Hawley-esque.
	...

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