Category Archives: CEI Podcast

CEI Podcast for March 15, 2012: T. Boone Pickens Amendment Fails

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The Senate this week voted down a highway bill amendment that would massively financially benefit natural gas mogul T. Boone Pickens. Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis explains why the Senate did the right thing, and why Washington shouldn’t be in the business of picking winners and losers in the energy marketplace.

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Posted in CEI Podcast, Public Choice

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CEI Podcast for March 8, 2012: IRS Moves to Fund Foreign Dictators

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A new IRS regulation hits the trifecta of enriching foreign dictators, helping them crush dissent, and would raise no revenue for the U.S. government. Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray explains. Unlike most other countries, the U.S. taxes income its citizens earn abroad. So, to encourage foreign banks to cooperate with the IRS, it is requiring U.S. banks to report to foreign countries, even dictatorships, on their citizens’ U.S. holdings. Governments can then use this information to find and punish dissenters.

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Posted in CEI Podcast, Economics, International, regulation, Taxation

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CEI Podcast for March 1, 2012: A Highway Bill Everyone Can Hate

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Land-Use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner explains why almost nobody is happy with how this year’s highway bill is turning out. Fiscal conservatives are leery of the price tag. Earmarkers are disappointed at efforts to make the bill pork-free. Transit activists are upset that the current version of the House bill would end the practice of using 20 percent of gas tax revenue to subsidize mass transit.

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CEI Podcast for February 23, 2012: Global Warming and Mass Movements

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In 1841, the Scottish writer Charles Mackay observed, ” the cup of life is not bitter enough to our palate, and we distill superfluous poison to put into it, or conjure up hideous things to frighten ourselves at, which would never exist if we did not make them.” CEI Warren Brookes Fellow Matt Patterson believes this glass-half-empty aspect of human nature applies directly to today’s global warming debate.

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Posted in CEI Podcast, Mankind's Doom, The New Religion

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CEI Podcast for February 16, 2012: Washington’s Prescription Drug Shortage

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Patients are suffering from a nationwide shortage of more than 260 different prescription drugs, many of them for different types of cancer. Senior Fellow Greg Conko explains why the biggest culprit for the drug shortage is Washington. DEA and FDA regulations make it difficult to ramp up supply, or to change prices to more accurately reflect demand.

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Posted in CEI Podcast, Economics, Health Care

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CEI Podcast for February 9, 2012: The Immigration Tariff

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Immigration law is second in complexity only to the income tax. In a new CEI paper, Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh proposes scrapping the whole thing and replacing it with a tariff. This is a much more humane approach to immigration, and in many cases will be less expensive for immigrants than the lawyers and fees they currently have to pay while they live in legal limbo. A tariff would also reduce illegal immigration by eliminating black markets. Money that currently goes to illegal smugglers and human traffickers could instead go to the U.S. Treasury. The idea can appeal to both the left and the right.

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CEI Podcast for February 2, 2012: The FDA’s Latest Power Grab

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Fellow in Consumer Policy Studies Michelle Minton breaks down the FDA’s behind-the-scenes push to regulate dietary supplements nearly as strictly as prescription drugs.

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Posted in CEI Podcast, Health Care, regulation

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CEI Podcast for January 26, 2012: Visa Reforms for Farm Workers

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The state of Georgia recently passed strict new requirements for immigrant farm workers. Immigration Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh looks at the results of a new report released by the state. Workers are fleeing to other states, causing a labor shortage. Some farmers find they lose less money by actually letting their crops rot in the fields rather than comply with state and federal rules.

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Posted in CEI Podcast, Immigration

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CEI Podcast for January 18, 2012: Dropping the SOPA

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Wikipedia, Reddit, and other popular websites all went black today to protest SOPA and PIPA, two bills currently before Congress. Critics charge that the bills could potentially shut down the Internet as we know it. Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia explains how the bills would work, and how they would indeed stifle free speech.

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Posted in CEI Podcast, Free Speech

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CEI Podcast for January 12, 2012: Mistaken Deportations

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Immigration Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh tells Jakadrien Turner‘s story and explains what it means for the immigration reform debate. Turner is a 14-year old girl from Texas who was mistakenly deported to Colombia. Turner is not Hispanic, does not speak Spanish, and has no connections to Colombia whatsoever. It took six months of pleading and legal maneuvering before authorities allowed her to return home. This was not an isolated incident. The way to prevent future cases like this, Nowrasteh argues, is radically simplifying our overly complex immigration and citizenship laws.

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Posted in CEI Podcast, Immigration, International

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