Plus: the enormous disparities between state budgets and why Amtrak shouldn’t continue its Heartland Flyer service.

On my AIER podcast Econception, I talked with Adam Michel, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, about the tax bill working its way through Congress. We recorded it after Audrey Fahlberg’s reporting on the inclusion of permanent full expensing in the Senate version of the bill and discuss the benefits of that important policy. We also talk about Adam’s piece for NR about the harms of energy subsidies and why Republicans are right to scale them back (and should be doing even more to scale them back).

Then, I talk about the enormous disparities between state budgets. State governments for the most part provide the same services — education, transportation, health care, etc. — everywhere. But even states with very similar populations face enormous differences in their budgets. That should raise questions about how well those services are being delivered. Look at New York vs. Florida, or California vs. Texas and Florida combined.

Next, I talk about Amtrak’s bogus justifications for continuing the little-used Heartland Flyer service connecting Oklahoma City and Fort Worth. The arguments are bad, but they aren’t specific to this service. They’re emblematic of a general mindset that advocates for big government use. I go through the arguments one by one.

For the Paper of the Episode, Adam picked a classic that we have done before: “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” by F. A. Hayek. Hayek’s message about the role of prices to coordinate human activity always bears repeating.

Please listen and subscribe to Econception by clicking here.