Tom Church
584 Vetoes
What Are The Least Terrible Policies From Each Presidential Campaign?
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What Are The Least Terrible Policies From Each Presidential Campaign?

Ep 2 - "This is a very optimistic podcast."

Howdy folks, today Danny and I attempt to call out one positive aspect from each presidential candidate’s campaign promises.

It was more difficult than we thought.

What’s in the Episode:

  • [0:02] Opening chit-chat

    • Danny’s Dodgers make a run in the World Series

    • Tom recounts his first experience working on a Lemons car

  • [1:45] Are there any good policies in either of VP Harris or former president Trump’s campaign proposals?

    • We, like everyone else, want to highlight CRFB’s scoring of the Harris and Trump plans

    • Danny highlights the EITC expansion from Harris and Trump’s proposal to pull back the energy/environment tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act (that was Tom’s too)

    • Updated CBO score on cost of energy/environment tax credits here and here, showing CBO off by $437 billion(!) over ten years

    • Tom tries to spin Harris’ proposal to increase the NIIT/additional Medicare tax on high income earners, but fails the ideological Turing test

  • [21:30] New Reports! New Data! Kicking people off of Medicaid

    • We talk about early results of unwinding Medicaid eligibility following the expiration of Covid rules that prevented people from being kicked off

    • The Health Affairs piece we discuss is: “Resumption Of Medicaid Eligibility Redeterminations: Little Change In Overall Insurance Coverage

    • Key lines: “It appears that for many people, the availability of employer-sponsored insurance and other private coverage offset Medicaid coverage loss. These results suggest that the resumption of redeterminations has had less impact on uninsurance than was initially feared.”

    • We talk about existing problems with underreporting in surveys due to people not knowing what they’re eligible for or already enrolled

    • We discuss the results to the Oregon Medicaid Experiment

    • CBOs Federal Subsidies for Health Insurance report

  • [33:18] I Read a Thing: Why you should prioritize policies that promote long-term growth

    • Noah Smith on long-run growth: “In the very long run, economic growth is everything. Global GDP has grown at about 2.68% since 1820. If it had grown at only 1.68% instead — just one percentage point less — the human race would be only 37% as rich as it is now, with a per capita GDP of about $6145 instead of $16,677. As Tyler Cowen writes in his book Stubborn Attachments, this means that if you can find some policy that will increase long-term growth, you should do it.”

    • Danny recounts his time with the Jeb Bush campaign and its goal of 4% growth

  • [37:56] Let’s Tell People on Twitter Why They’re Wrong

  • [40:25] Veto of the Week

  • [43:15] Send Us Feedback to Read on the Show

    • Have questions for us? Want to test out an argument? Do you want to check if something you heard on the internet is true? Let us know!

Howdy! Thanks for reading and listening. Subscribe for free to receive new episodes.

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Tom Church
584 Vetoes
A public policy podcast about taxes, spending, and regulation hosted by Tom Church and Danny Heil
Send us questions at feedback@584vetoes.com
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