Matters of Policy & Politics

Matters of Policy & Politics: California Update - Proposition 1 Wasn’t the Yeast of the Governor’s Worries | Lee Ohanian and Bill Whalen | Hoover Institution

California’s Super Tuesday primary yielded a few surprises, including a low turnout that nearly doomed governor Newsom’s pet ballot measure and a San Francisco electorate moving rightward on local police tactics and welfare requirements. Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, discuss election results, the controversy over Panera Bread and a gubernatorial chum seemingly exempted from a California minimum-wage increase for fast-food chains, plus the state legislature revisiting snack-food additives (potentially bad news for chips and Gatorade consumers), and the future of daylight savings time.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: Rep. Mike Gallagher on Congress, China and Public Service | Bill Whalen | Hoover Institution

Unusual for a member of Congress, the 40-year-old Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher is retiring later this year after only four terms in the House of Representatives. In a wide-ranging interview, Gallagher discusses what brought him to Capitol Hill and why he’s decided to depart so relatively soon; life inside a fractious Republican caucus; his legacy as chair of a House select committee examining the threat of an ambitious Chinese Communist Party; plus lessons learned from political and military service (Gallagher is an ex-Marine who served alongside Hoover senior fellow and Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster in Iraq).  

Matters Of Policy & Politics: California Update - Mental Vs. Fiscal Health, and Remembering a Rebuilder | Hoover Institution

California’s Proposition 1, a $6.38 billion bond addressing mental health treatment across the Golden State, seems destined for voter approval. Is it sound policy – and a sound expense for a state deeply in debt? 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 California, including a campaign to turn a coastal stretch of the Golden State into a new nation called “Pacifica”; the politics of “shrinkflation”; what this year’s US Senate race says about California’s top-two primary system; plus the legacy of the late C.C. Myers, who rebuilt the Santa Monica Freeway after 1994’s Northridge Earthquake.

California Update: DiFi’s Void, Deficit Dismay, Urban Dreams, Barbie Dolor | Bill Whalen, Lee Ohanian, and Jonathan Movroydis | Hoover Institution

Four US Senate candidates gathered for the first televised debate in advance of California’s March 5 primary; the state’s alarming budget deficit exposes fundamental problems with spending and taxes; and what are the odds of Silicon Valley luminaries building a new city form scratch in the heart of rural Solano County? 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 California, including Barbie’s rough Academy Award treatment – no Best Director or Actress nod – and what that says about filmdom’s perception of blockbusters and the female artists.

Matters of Policy & Politics: American Lion, Near East Hyenas: US Options in Yemen and Iran | Bill Whalen, Joel Rayburn, and Bernard Haykel | Hoover Institution

A new year begins with a familiar story – Middle East turmoil – and two plots twists of late: US forces striking Yemen’s Houthi rebels while trying to safeguard Red Sea maritime traffic; and Iran firing missiles in the directions of Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria, which tests western resolve. Joel Rayburn, a Hoover Institution visiting fellow and member of Hoover’s Middle East and the Islamic World Working Group, and Bernard Haykel, a Princeton University professor of Near Eastern Studies and noted expert on Yemen, discuss strategic options in the Middle East including how to curb Iranian aggression, strengthening ties with regional allies, and reintroducing the notion of American-led deterrence.  

Matters of Policy & Politics: Iowa and Beyond: Three’s a (Republican) Crowd? | Bill Whalen, Dave Brady, and Doug Rivers | Hoover Institution

On the eve of Iowa’s presidential caucuses and the start of the 2024 primary season, what’s the inevitability of a Biden-Trump rematch? David Brady and Douglas Rivers, Hoover Institution senior fellows and Stanford University political scientists, discuss various political dynamics heading into Iowa and beyond including whether there’s room for three viable Republican candidates in January’s and February’s contests, the number of persuadable voters in a polarized “two-incumbent” general election, the role of third-party candidates as mischief-makers, plus alternate ways for selecting presidential nominees – i.e., is it time for national, regional or more “open” primaries?

Matters Of Policy & Politics: California Update: 2023 Ends on a Sour Financial Note (Except for Shohei Ohtani) | Bill Whalen, Lee Ohanian, and Jonathan Movroydis | Hoover Institution

What did we learn in 2023? California governor Gavin Newsom’s forays into national politics may have hurt his popularity back home; San Francisco’s pre-summit emergency clean-up proved that urban sanitation, like fame, can be fleeting.

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, including how California’s fiscal outlook went from a massive surplus to a titanic deficit, whether there’s light at the end of the tunnel for the state’s troubled high-speed rail project, plus Shohei Ohtani’s future in Dodger blue – and maybe a dodger of state income taxes.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: California Update: SF Cleans Up, LA Melts Down and Arnold’s Back (in Sacramento) | Bill Whalen, Lee Ohanian, and Jonathan Movroydis | Hoover Institution

A tale of not two but three California cities: what some have suggested was a hypocritical sanitizing of San Francisco ahead of this week’s APEC summit; the question of who and what caused a fire closing a portion of a Los Angeles freeway for weeks ahead; and in Sacramento, the 20^th anniversary of Arnold Schwarzenegger taking office as California’s 38^th governor. 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, including the addition of “disinformation” and ethnic studies classes (the latter now a graduation requirement) to California’s K-12 curriculum.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative | Bill Whalen and Jennifer Burns | Hoover Institution

Though arguably one of the most celebrated economists of the past century, there’s much to still be learned about the late Milton Friedman – his embrace of free markets and capitalism, his oft-times contrarian thinking on the likes of drug legalization, and the women who supported his research. Author Jennifer Burns, a Hoover Institution research fellow and Stanford University historian, discusses what she learned about the fabled Hoover senior research fellow (courtesy of Friedman’s papers in Hoover’s archives)  in her new book, Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: Michael Boskin: Defense Budgeting for a Safer World | Bill Whalen | Hoover Institution

Add to an already uncertain world: America’s uncertain ability to adequately budget for its national and global security needs – those needs more apparent given the US’s current involvement in two “hot” wars, plus “Cold War 2.0" with China. Michael Boskin, the Hoover Institution’s Wohlford Family Senior Fellow and former chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, discusses Defense Budgeting for a Safer World – a new Hoover Institution press release he co-edited that features nearly three dozen defense and national security experts (many of them, Hoover fellows) outlining better ways to deliver “more bang for the buck” and recruit and retain needed personnel.