This Friday, Peter Robinson interviews Speaker of the House Mike Johnson about the large, complicated, and controversial budget reconciliation measure the House recently passed; David Henderson makes the case that current housing regulations are responsible for an economic drain even greater than large tariffs; and Jay Bhattacharya shares his vision for reforming the National Institutes of Health to better serve the American public and advance critical health science.
Revitalizing American Institutions
For a new episode of Uncommon Knowledge, Distinguished Policy Fellow Peter Robinson interviews Speaker of the House Mike Johnson about the contentious passage of the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” a sweeping budget reconciliation measure crafted to implement core elements of the Trump agenda. Johnson defends the bill against criticism from Elon Musk and others, arguing it delivers historic tax cuts, $1.6 trillion in savings, and crucial investments in border security and national defense. The conversation delves into the arcane rules of Congress, the realities of leading a narrow majority, and the significance of the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) effort—driven in part by Musk—to root out waste and fraud. Johnson positions the legislation not only as fiscally responsible but also as a turning point in restoring constitutional governance and federal oversight. Watch here.
Writing for Defining Ideas, Research Fellow David R. Henderson argues that while tariffs that diminish free trade are “destructive,” excessive restrictions on the construction of housing “do much greater damage.” Citing research from George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan, Henderson shows that housing deregulation would reduce housing costs by about 50 percent. Folding this cost decrease into a typical American household’s budget, “the cost of living would be 90 percent of what it is now, which means that the standard of living would increase by 11 percent.” Using estimates of the cost of tariffs from Paul Krugman, Henderson then finds that an “11 percent increase in the standard of living is more than 14 times Krugman’s estimated loss from stiff 50 percent tariffs.” Henderson concludes by calling on economists to be “even more vociferous in their opposition to restrictions on housing.” Read more here.
Another new piece at Defining Ideas highlights excerpts from Peter Robinson’s recent conversation with National Institutes of Health Director and Hoover Senior Fellow Jay Bhattacharya for Uncommon Knowledge. In one exchange, Robinson asks why despite billions in expenditures by the NIH in recent decades, Americans have gotten sicker. Bhattacharya acknowledges that “between 2012 and 2019, there was no increase in American life expectancy,” and failures by NIH are partly to blame. At the same time, he points out that there “have been a tremendous number of actual scientific advances, which I can point to, where the NIH made a large difference. We now have, I think, a cure for sickle cell anemia.” Bhattacharya then shares part of his vision for NIH focusing on health problems not well addressed by market-based mechanisms, to produce “common pool ideas that make the whole of science and biology better.” Read more here.
State and Local Governance
As attention turns to who will replace Gavin Newsom as the next governor of California, several ongoing policy challenges in the state will also attract increased scrutiny. For the latest California-focused episode of Matters of Policy & Politics, Hoover Senior Fellow Lee Ohanian and Distinguished Policy Fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s California on Your Mind web channel, join Hoover senior product manager Jonathan Movroydis to discuss the latest in the Golden State. They dive into issues including flaws in Governor Newsom’s plan requiring all new automobiles sold in California by 2035 to be zero-emission vehicles, another financial blow to California’s high-speed rail project, and ongoing struggles with homelessness and affordability. The panelists also consider a curious lack of celebrities auditioning for statewide offices. The episode concludes with ninety-fifth birthday tributes to Clint Eastwood (May 31) and Hoover’s own Thomas Sowell (June 30). Watch or listen here.
Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies
On the Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century podcast, Policy Fellow Jon Hartley and Randal Quarles discuss Quarles’s career as a lawyer and in policy, including his time as Federal Reserve vice chair for regulation. Quarles is the chairman and cofounder of The Cynosure Group. Before founding Cynosure, he was a long-time partner of the Carlyle Group, where he began the firm’s program of investments in the financial services industry during the 2008 financial crisis. In the conversation, Hartley and Quarles explore topics such as the global financial crisis, the Glass-Steagall Act, banking regulation, lenders of last resort, Basel III, the Dodd-Frank Act, capital requirements, the potential relaxation of treasuries in the Supplementary Leverage Ratio (SLR), deposit insurance after the Silicon Valley Bank regional banking crisis, and stablecoin regulation. Watch or listen here.
Determining America’s Role in the World
To discuss various current policy issues and the challenges of positioning the United States for global leadership, Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice joined We Hold These Truths with Representative Dan Crenshaw. On the podcast, Rice explained how the Hoover Institution is working to confront declining civic knowledge among Americans, grapple with the implications of rapid advances in AI, and study the threats posed by revisionist authoritarian powers Russia and China to global peace and prosperity. Watch the episode for a candid, one-on-one exchange between two prominent public servants dedicated to revitalizing America and confronting the greatest threats to the future of Western civilization. Watch here.
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