Watchdog.org Podcast

It's Super Bowl weekend, but for many political junkies, the big game came a few days early. Yes, we're talking about the Iowa Caucus, which took place on Monday after months and months (and months) of campaigning in the Hawkeye State. Now, with the field winnowing and New Hampshire's primaries on the horizon, Watchdog Podcast hosts Eric Boehm and Matt Kittle take a look at the state of the race.  It's basically a three-way tie on the Republican side, as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the winner in Iowa, looks to fend off Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida. On the Democratic side, a coronation has turned into a serious race. Hillary Clinton was supposed to jog to the nomination, but she barely eked out a win in Iowa and now faces an uphill battle in New Hampshire against U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont.  Although Iowa gets portrayed as the Super Bowl of the campaign -- because of all the media coverage and attention leading up the caucuses -- history says that it's really more like

The first actual votes of the 2016 presidential election are (finally) just days away. On this edition of the Watchdog Podcast, we preview next week's primary election kickoff, as Eric Boehm sits down with Matt Kittle to talk about the Iowa caucuses, Donald Trump and what one famous Founding Father might think about the current Republican frontrunner. "Of all the founders, (Alexander) Hamilton had the gravest doubts about the wisdom of the masses," wrote Ron Chernow in his biography of Hamilton (which inspired the super-popular Broadway musical). "Hamilton's besetting fear was that American democracy would be spoiled by demagogues who would mouth popular shibboleths to conceal their despotism." As Boehm and Kittle note, Trump is hardly the first American politician to rise to stardom by fulfilling Hamilton's populist fears (we're looking at you, William Jennings Bryan). But in this new age of media saturation and reality-TV-style-campaigns, Trump has a chance to ride that populism all the

Snow has shut down the nation's capitol, but nothing can shut down the Watchdog Podcast. This week, host Eric Boehm is joined by Watchdog's top dog Will Swaim to discuss his once-and-now-again hometown football team: the Los Angeles Rams.  The Rams left behind a vacant stadium in St. Louis, a stadium that still has local taxpayers on the hook for more than $100 million in debt, for the sunny confines of Inglewood, California. There is no public money being spent on the Rams' new home, but taxpayers in southern California might not be completely off the hook.  We'll explain why. Then, a look at Swaim's latest story on the chilling effect that state regulators can have on free speech. In Montana, the Commission on Political Practices is bringing a lawsuit against a former Republican state senator in the Left's latest effort to fight "dark money" in politics.  Speech police are bad enough, but partisan speech cops are even worse. Finally, Ryan Young of the Competitive Enterprise Institute joi

Get caught selling home-made muffins in Wisconsin, and you could end up in jail for six months. It's a law that seems absurd on it's face, but that's only the beginning of the story.  Efforts to change Wisconsin's so-called "cottage food law" is opposed by powerful lobbyists from the baking industry (there's a phrase you probably never expected to read) and legislators who have a stake in the outcome. Matt Kittle joins Eric Boehm to talk about the silly rules in Wisconsin and the on-going effort to get them changed.  Then, Ken Ward explains why property taxes are going up, up, up in Texas.  The answer: big government that requires big bucks to keep running. And our Big Dog interview of the week is Bruce Parker, of Vermont Watchdog, who sits down with Boehm to talk about Donald Trump's national appeal. After attending one of The Donald's big rallies -- last week in Burlington -- Parker offers his assessment of Trump's campaign and the billionarie-turned-presidential-hopeful's legions of fans. Al

Federal power can have a corrupting influence on state policy. That's a lesson from the past that's still relevent in the present, as this week's Watchdog Podcast explores. Host Eric Boehm sits down with Chris Koopman of the Mercatus Center to talk about the history of Certificate of Need laws for health care. It begins in the 1960s. That’s when the first few states enacted such laws, beginning with New York in 1964. At first, the CON laws were pretty simple. New York’s required a permit from the state government before new hospitals or nursing homes could be built. In 1972 Congress issued a mandate requiring all states to pass a rudimentary CON law. Two years later, the federal government doubled down on that mandate with the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act, requiring states to implement CON requirements in order to receive funding through federal programs such as Medicaid. The arm-twisting worked: Every state but Louisiana passed a CON law for hospitals and health care pro

Yes, we have "Star Wars fever" too.  But don't worry, there's no spoilers here. On this edition of the Watchdog Podcast, host Eric Boehm sits down with Dylan Pahman, a researcher for the Acton Institute, to discuss morality and capitalism within the Star Wars universe. When Lando decides to betray his friends in The Empire Strikes Back, is he just making a smart business decision? Why does he change his mind and join the rebels? Lord Acton famously proclaimed that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely," but every Star Wars fan already knows this after watching Anakin's fall and eventual redemption. George Lucas' space saga has resonated with generations of fans not only because of the cool spaceships and sweet lightsaber duels, Pahman argues, but because the series offers a mythology that gives greater meaning to the actions of the characters on screen.  In the opening, Boehm and Matt Kittle discuss this week's GOP debate and look ahead to 2016, when the polls and the debates will a

In the world of astrophysics, dark matter is a theoretical type of matter that cannot be seen or otherwise detected with telescopes, but is believed to make up the majority of all substance in the universe. In much the same way, regulatory dark matter is difficult to detect or track, but accounts for the majority of all federal rules and regs. Clyde Wayne Crews, a vice president of policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, sits down with Eric Boehm to discuss his new report on these "dark matter" regulations that are created without any authorization from Congress or federal agencies.  There are lots and lots of them -- and before Crews tried to quantify them, there was really no accounting of exactly how many exist. How many could he find?  In the past 20 years, more than 500,000 informal “public notices” issued by regulatory agencies of the federal government. In the opening of the podcast, Watchdog's Matt Kittle explains the newest developments in the ongoing "Secret War" in Wi

Environmental groups lost a legal battle in Washington last month, but the case provided a glimpse into the Green group' new plan of attack: using children to tug at judicial heart strings. As Rob Nikolewski reports, King County Superior Court Judge Hollis Hill denied the children’s demand that the state Department of Ecology adopt stricter emissions standards aimed at protecting them from climate change. Hill said the court did not have rule-making authority, but at the same time, Hill’s ruling was more than sympathetic to the youngsters’ case, with her decision echoing many of the same talking points climate activists often make. Lawyers who represented the children in the lawsuit say this is a technique they will be looking to duplicate in other states. And speaking of duplicating things, the Wisconsin Supreme Court had to rule -- again -- this week that the John Doe investigation into conservative donors in the Badger State is once again dead.  It seems like prosecutors in

Enrollment is down, premiums are up. And one major insurer might be pulling out of the exchanges while numerous state-run health insurance co-ops are imploding. That pretty much sums up the current state of the Affordable Care Act, which is clearly struggling as the new enrollment period draws near.  After years of political and legal battles, could simple economics be the ACA's biggest problem? John Davidson, a health policy fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, joins us on today's podcast to answer that question and others. We take a look at new enrollment projections and promises of massive premium hikes from some of the biggest insurance companies in the land. Before that, Matt Kittle and Eric Boehm discuss the latest developments in Watchdog's ongoing coverage of the John Doe investigation in Wisconsin. It turns out that the politically-motivated investigation into Wisconsin conservatives nearly had a cross-over with another politically-motivated investigation of conservatives: the one run b

College campuses are in an uproar over....well, something. What started out as a series of protests against perceived racial slights at the University of Missouri and perceived intolerance at Yale University have turned into full-scale media storms -- and now the protesting college students say they didn't even want the media's attention in the first place, even though they are, you know, protesting in public. But that's not even the most head-scratching story that involves a college campus this week.  Would you believe that former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky is going to get to keep receiving a state pension while serving a life sentence for sexually abusing young boys? Matt Kittle and Eric Boehm take a look at those big stories and everything else making headlines this week. Then, Watchdog investigative reporter Tori Richards stops by to talk about her latest expose on the EPA, which reveals the agency is pushing for clean air policies that even many national parks cannot meet.  More t

President Barack Obama announced on Friday that he would block the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, saying that it's construction is not "in the nation's best interest." But there's plenty of evidence that it is in the nation's best interest. On this edition of the Watchdog Podcast, our national energy and environmental reporter, Rob Nikolewski, sits down with Eric Boehm to discuss the president's decision and some of the consequences it will have  -- politically and environmentally -- in 2016 and beyond. While we've got Rob here, we'll also ask him about his big story from earlier this week detailing California's plan to divest its pension fund investments from coal, in the name of being "green," of course. At the top of the show, Matt Kittle stops by to preview next week's GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee. Ben Carson is facing greater scrutiny, Jeb Bush needs a real boost and there will be two fewer candidates on the state as the greatest reality show on television returns. Also: is Scott

Happy Halloween! If you're a lover of small government and you want a real fright this week, join us for a look at some of the scary policies being crafted by bureaucrats in California -- where common sense in government is as hard to find as a ghost and local governments stagger like zombies (cause of death: pension obligations) as residents flee in fear of higher taxes and ghastly regulations. California-based Watchdog contributor Steve Greenhut joins host Eric Boehm to discuss how local officials are badly mismanaging the water crisis in the Golden State, and how the long-promised high-speed trains connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles are already running behind schedule and over budget, no surprise. Then, we sit down with Darren McKinney, a spokesman for Americans for Tort Reform, to discuss something really scary: Judicial Hellholes.  He explains how attorneys general and rent-seeking personal injury lawyers have teamed up in many states to go after businesses for huge sums of money -- without reg

Daily fantasy sports are big business, but are they also illegal? In the wake of a scandal involving the two biggest DFS websites, DraftKings.com and FanDuel.com, government regulators in a number of states and Washington, D.C., are taking a look at how the games work and whether they should be classified as sports betting – and therefore they would be illegal in most states. On this week's (abbreviated) edition of the Watchdog Podcast, Watchdog.org editor and in-house gaming expert joins Eric Boehm to discuss how the DFS scandal happened, what it means for the wildly popular games and whether government regulation is really the best thing for consumers who are playing the games. As Kampis explains, some of the efforts at regulation are really attempts by state governments to force the DFS leagues to pay licensing fees to the state -- or, alternatively, to funnel their customers into state-run casinos instead of independent, online gaming sites.

The Democratic candidates for president got together this week for their first head-to-head debate, but all the candidates clearly have a lot of work to do. Hosts Eric Boehm and Matt Kittle open this edition of the Watchdog Podcast with a countdown of the most cringe-worthy moments from the debate, including Hillary Clinton's un-ironic claim that Edward Snowden should be punished for putting national security at risk (when, you know, she's trying to avoid accountability for doing much the same thing with her personal email server) and Lincoln Chaffee's claim that he didn't know what he was voting for when he helped repeal the Glass Steagall Act in 1999 (he now supports bringing that law back). What's the number one moment in our countdown? You'll have to listen to find out! Then, Watchdog reporter Bruce Parker sits down to discuss Vermont's ambitious green energy plan, which will cost lots of money and disrupt lots of Vermonters' lives in the name of saving the environment.  The only problem: it won't ac

In San Antonio, Texas, food trucks have to get permission from brick-and-mortar restaurants before they are allowed to set up shop. It's a rule that doesn't make much sense and certainly doesn't have anything to do with consumers' health and safety -- you know, the stuff government is supposed to be worried about.  That's why it's being challenged by attorneys from the Institute for Justice, who say the rule simply isn't constitutional. Arif Panjo, IJ's lead attorney in the case, sits down with Eric Boehm to discuss the case in San Antonio and other odd rules that limit food truck entrepreneurs' opportunities around the country. At the top of the show, Boehm and Will Swaim take a look at a different area where government is intruding on the free market: the creation of rural broadband internet services, which are costly for taxpayers and provide little benefit to the general population. In other news: The VA is under investigation for using whistleblowers' confidential medical records to target individua

Scott Walker dropped out of the presidential race and Pope Francis dropped by Washington, D.C., to lecture Congress about immigration and climate change. Hosts Eric Boehm and Matt Kittle take a look back at the Walker campaign, trying to figure out where the governor went wrong in his pursuit of the White House.  Perhaps more importantly, we also look ahead to see what his return to Wisconsin will mean for his political future and the state's. Later, Sterling Burnett from the Heartland Institute stops by the program to take a hard look at the head of the Catholic Church.  Pope Francis talks about wanting to help the world's poor -- a noble goal, for sure -- but he also likes to talk about the need for environmental policies to stop global warming.  The problem, Burnett points out, is that those environmental policies come at a high cost for the poor. Also on this edition of the show: police in Pennsylvania want to be granted anonymity when they pull the trigger, and the state Supreme Court in W

Donald Trump finally ran out of things to say, Carly Fiorina is set to surge in the polls and Mike Huckabee made a good point in favor of small government (yes, really). Those were the major take-aways from the second GOP presidential debate, which aired on CNN this week.  In this edition of the Watchdog Podcast, hosts Eric Boehm and Will Swaim look back at the debate - well, at least some of it, I mean, it was nearly three hours long, after all. Huckabee struck a cord when he called for the federal government to listen to the Constitution and allow state governments to make more decisions for themselves.  Given his history, its questionable whether Huckabee would continue to take that approach if he found himself in the Oval Office, but it's nice to hear the Tenth Amendment get a little attention in such a major forum. But Fiorina was the star of the night, making headlines across social media for how she took on Donald Trump and impressing many observers with her range and depth of knowledge. 

The National Football League is back, with the new season kicking off on Thursday night. No doubt that football is the most popular sport in America, but the most popular sport for NFL owners? That's probably ripping off taxpayers to make billions of dollars. The NFL and it's 32 teams play in multi-million-dollar stadiums that are usually built with the assistance of taxpayers, whether they like it or not.  And the league has perfected a way to extort new facilities out of government officials by threatening to move teams from one city to another. On this week's edition of the Watchdog Podcast, hosts Eric Boehm and Will Swaim discuss the NFL and the league's perpetual threat to move a team to Los Angeles unless a current host city builds a new stadium.  The St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers are using that threat right now, and the Minnesota Vikings successfully used it just a few years ago to get a $2 billion stadium built with the help of $1 billion from the public. Then, Tori Richards sits dow

Protesters standing outside the Rowan County courthouse in Kentucky we yelling at Kim Davis to "do your job." But some conservatives have argued that Davis, a county clerk who this week made national headlines for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, was right to follow her conscious and refuse to provide the government-issued permission slips. That's the wrong way to look at this situation, say hosts Eric Boehm and Will Swaim on this edition of the Watchdog Podcast. Private individuals and businesses should be given wide allowance to do and act as they see fit - even if that means discriminating against certain groups, which is bad business practice and abhorrent personal behavior, but that's their choice. Government agents, on the other hand, must do their jobs fairly and provide services to everyone.  Don't like it? Then don't accept a paycheck from the government and find a different job. What if your mailman was in favor of gun control and decided he wouldn't deliver your copy of

Donald Trump has made immigration the popular - and populist - issue in the Republican presidential primary race, and other Republicans are following his lead. On this edition of the Watchdog Podcast, hosts Eric Boehm and Will Swaim take a look at some recent comments made by Republican governors about one key aspect of the immigration debate: what to do about sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities generally include the largest cities in America, as you'd expect -- LA, New York, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, as well as a couple of hundred smaller towns and cities.  They typically bar local employees (including law enforcement) from cooperating with federal officials to deport illegal immigrants. They boomed in the 1980s as wars in Central America sent tens of thousands into the U.S. NAFTA produced a second boom, this time many Mexicans, in the 1990s. And Mexico's drug war generated yet another boom in migration into the 2000s. But after an illegal immigrant killed a young woman in San Francisco ea