The Biden administration is discussed across these episodes as both a set of fiscal and tax proposals and, more broadly, as an expansion of federal power that libertarian guests treat as a threat to property rights, tax competition and ideological toleration. The excerpts span the transition period and the first months of the administration, and the treatment is consistently critical.
Fiscal agenda and the deficit
In a December 2020 episode, Bob Zadek introduces the topic as the deepening hole and says the incoming administration will set about the exhausting task of raising and then spending a cool $7 trillion, which he calls new money in carrying out the Biden worldview. He asks where the administration will get that money and answers that it will come from you and I. Is it too late to step back from the edge of fiscal insanity? (2020)
Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, described by Bob as the Director of Tax Policy and head of the Downsizing Government project, contrasts the incoming administration with the Obama administration. He says Biden is coming into office not promising to cut or trim any waste but promising to spend $7 trillion more, and that the country is going in a disastrous direction with the government. Is it too late to step back from the edge of fiscal insanity? (2020)
The episode’s framing material states that Bob and Chris discuss the looming fiscal crisis caused by the deepening federal deficit, the administration’s proposed $7 trillion in new spending, and the potential economic fallout of doubling capital gains and corporate taxes. Is it too late to step back from the edge of fiscal insanity? (2020)
Tax policy and capital gains
In a November 2020 episode, David Lesperance describes a wealth tax as taking a percentage of assets annually whether they are increasing, stable or dropping in value, distinguishing it from income tax on current income and capital gains tax on assets that have increased in value. He says one of the platforms of the Democratic Party is to increase long-term capital gains tax from the current federal rate of 23.5% up to the ordinary tax rate of 39%. The Flight of the Golden Geese (2020)
Lesperance says the outcome will depend greatly on what happens in Georgia, control of the Senate, and how much President-elect Biden chooses to use executive power. He says the threat of a wealth tax, which was not adopted in the platform, and the proposed increase in capital gains to ordinary rates have driven clients to give themselves the insurance policy or ability to leave, and that some clients are packing the parachute and jumping out of the U.S. plane to more favorable destinations. The Flight of the Golden Geese (2020)
Bob Zadek, in that same episode, describes a shift in rhetoric among the Democrats through the primaries and into the platform, from getting money for good things to taking money from bad people, and calls this the demonization of wealth. He attributes to AOC or somebody, whom he says tend to blur in his mind, a public statement that billionaires ought to be illegal. The Flight of the Golden Geese (2020)
In a May 2021 episode, Bob Zadek says that in a somewhat stealthy way the administration, in one of its pending tax bills — some recovery act — has tried in its domestic tax policy proposals to prevent states from using wealth they receive from the federal government to reduce their state taxes. He says Biden does not want that because New York, California and Illinois are at a tax competitive disadvantage because their taxes are high, and that Biden is determined to eliminate any tax competition, whether between states or between countries. Auditing the Corporate Income Tax (2021)
Richard Rubin responds by focusing on rate gaps and arbitrage opportunities. He says that if the global floor is 15% and the U.S. domestic rate is 25 — the administration wants 28 but that is clearly not going to happen — and U.S.-based companies have to pay 21% on foreign income, a spread of three or five points between a U.S.-headquartered company and a foreign company matters. He says taxes matter but not as much as you might think, and that the margins to watch include inversions, U.S. companies being bought by foreign companies, and startup IPOs happening more with non-U.S. domiciled companies. Auditing the Corporate Income Tax (2021)
Rubin notes the counterargument that corporate taxes were cut a lot and the economy did not do all the things proponents said it would, and raises the possibility that companies make enough profit that they can be taxed without changing behavior much. He says it is an unknown and that a clearer sense will come from the mix between the global deal, what other countries do, and what Congress agrees to. Auditing the Corporate Income Tax (2021)
Rent control and the progressive experiment
In a March 2021 episode, Bob Zadek says the country is in the thick of the Biden administration and is starting to watch an economic transformation perhaps never seen before, calling it one mega experiment — as opposed to MAGA — whose direction many have a good idea about. He identifies rent control as a carryover in the administration, strongly embraced by Bernie Sanders when he was a candidate and not unembraced by Biden, and calls it one of the more obnoxious economic inventions of the progressive era. Escaping the Statrix: Trevor Burrus’s Rent Control Red Pill (2021)
Bob says rent control is contrary to the private ownership and enjoyment of one’s property and to the constitutional prohibition on government taking property without just compensation, and that it crashes into those core values. He introduces Trevor Burrus, a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review, as having studied rent control in the courts and economically. Escaping the Statrix: Trevor Burrus’s Rent Control Red Pill (2021)
The episode’s framing material states that Bob and Trevor discuss the economic and constitutional failures of rent control, how it acts as an unconstitutional wealth transfer from landlords to tenants, creates housing shortages, and persists due to political incentives rather than sound policy. Escaping the Statrix: Trevor Burrus’s Rent Control Red Pill (2021)
Federalism, cultural power and trust
In an October 2020 episode recorded before the inauguration, Kevin Vallier says he worries about who will staff all the powerful positions in the Biden administration. He says he thinks Biden himself is a moderate but the people behind him are not, and that the administration will resemble the Obama administration in messing with groups such as Tea Party groups by giving them more oversight than others. Mandatory PPE (2020)
Vallier says he worries about a combination of political and cultural power used against people on the right, particularly now that tech companies and many other corporations have adopted the values of the progressive left, and that this will only make things worse. He says this is one reason people on the right were happy to vote for Trump, because they wanted a street fighter and were worried about being controlled not just politically but culturally. Mandatory PPE (2020)
Vallier predicts that under a Biden administration the social justice folks will take all the big cabinet offices, that the federal government will fund abortion — not just giving Planned Parenthood money but direct payment — and that this will cause more division. He says he expects the Supreme Court to take care of a lot of the religious exemption issues, but that we will see the passage of the Equality Act, which he says allows for almost no religious exemptions for people with more traditional views. Mandatory PPE (2020)
Vallier says he is worried about a huge amount of bureaucratic control and monitoring backed up by a huge amount of cultural power, and possibly coordination between the Biden and eventually Harris presidency and Silicon Valley, with the federal government issuing guidelines for what is in bounds and what is not. He says he is not sure that will happen but that the fact it could worries him a lot and puts him in a mistrusting mood. Mandatory PPE (2020)
Bob Zadek, in the same episode, frames the underlying issue as federalism: differences in lifestyle are not themselves a cause of polarization until they represent a threat, because with a strong federal government people with different values are free to live their lifestyle but not free to impose it on him. He says no one would care about these differences if they could not be imposed against your will, and that at the state level you can move from Ohio to New York if that is your choice. Mandatory PPE (2020)
Vallier agrees and adds cultural power to political power, citing Silicon Valley elites blocking conservatives or the New York Post and cancel culture making people less trusting. He says he wants ideological toleration and a reduction in political prejudice, and that a precondition is a limited federal government and more federal arrangements, so that California could do one thing and Utah another. Mandatory PPE (2020)
Across episodes: no development
The excerpts do not show the same question argued and then revisited with a changed position; instead they show different guests addressing different facets of the same incoming or early administration — Vallier on staffing, cultural power and federalism in October 2020, Lesperance on capital gains and wealth tax in November 2020, Edwards on the $7 trillion spending agenda in December 2020, Burrus on rent control in March 2021, and Rubin on tax competition in May 2021 — with no episode revisiting an earlier guest’s specific claim.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state the administration’s inauguration date, the names or enactment status of its legislation, or the outcome of any of the proposals discussed. They do not say whether the predicted staffing, funding or coordination came to pass, nor do they give the administration’s own account of its policies. No excerpt states a court holding on rent control or the resolution of any tax or spending measure.