The Heartland Institute

Maureen Martin , senior fellow for legal affairs at The Heartland Institute, talks with Jim Lakely about her recent piece in the Daily Caller titled " The Truth About Armed Guards in Schools. " ...

Will the rise of online learning undermine liberalism’s control over education? Lewis Andrews thinks so. He joins the podcast to discuss his recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on the topic. There, Andrews writes, “As performance-based incentive structures spread, course designers and school-based curriculum directors will ...

It's no coincidence that states with the highest taxes on cigarettes have the highest rates of cigarette smuggling . . . and other crimes related to the trade in cigarettes to avoid high taxes, says Michael LaFaive of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. ...

James Taylor discusses his upcoming global warming debate with Ray Bellamy, M.D., a Tallahassee Orthopedic Surgeon. ...

Ben Domenech discusses Obamacare's new taxes. ...

The fiscal cliff deal did virtually nothing to solve the government's fiscal problems. Bill Wilson of Americans for Limited Government says there will soon be a debt ceiling debate, and enough lawmakers are frightened by the size of the government's borrowing that our voices added to the debate might swing some votes toward ...

Adults who speak English poorly lose $3,000 per year in wages, which totals $37.7 billion annual loss in U.S. earnings, concludes a new report from the Lexington Institute. Institute president and report coauthor Don Soifer joins the podcast to talk English language learners and their growing impact on public schools and ...

In this "Best of" Heartland podcast, Michigan is one of 18 states where the state government acts as liquor wholesaler. Liquor reforms are being mulled in Michigan, where a new report from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy concludes the state's liquor monopoly harms consumers without delivering health and safety benefits ...

In this "Best of" Heartland podcast, Texas students are clamoring for education options as the state legislature faces what seem like unending school funding struggles. Heartland President Joe Bast visited the Texas Senate in late August to discuss school choice legislation that would address both of these concerns: Taxpayer savings ...

In this "Best of" Heartland podcast, Townhall.com columnist Marita Noon explains why alternative energy is hamstringing the U.S. economy. ...

In this "Best of" Heartland podcast, Momentum appears to be building in Congress for the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would allow states to collect sales tax from online sales even when a retailer has no physical presence in the state. Heartland Institute Government Relations Director John Nothdurft tells us what's happening ...

In this "Best of" Heartland podcast, Energy economist Donn Dears discusses the economic benefits of natural gas fracking and its outstanding environmental record. ...

In this "Best of" Heartland podcast, Investments expert Bill Gunderson says, in many markets, a real recovery in housing looks to be underway. It's the result of good old supply and demand coming into alignment after several years of a depressed housing industry ...

In this "Best of" Heartland podcast, Steven Titch, policy analyst for the Reason Foundation, discusses internet sales tax and the marketplace fairness act. ...

In this "Best of" Heartland podcast, Many government efforts to make U.S. colleges more affordable and accessible has actually made them more expensive and inaccessible, writes Vicki Alger in a new report for the Independent Women’s Forum. Alger joins the podcast to discuss her report, the moral hazard of student loans, and ...

North Carolina has the region's highest income tax burden, high unemployment, and slow personal income growth. The Civitas Institute in Raleigh, N.C., proposes ending the state's personal and corporate income taxes and franchise tax and replacing them with a consumption-based tax that research shows could boost employment and ...

Jim Lakely talks with Taylor Smith, policy analyst at The Heartland Institute, about a Policy Brief he wrote with James M. Taylor titled "PricewaterhouseCoopers' 'Too Late' Report: Poor Science, No Practical Solutions." The brief is a rebuttal to a PWC report from November that predicts at least 2 degrees Celsius warming ...

Michigan has become the 24th state to enact "right-to-work," a law that says people may not be forced to join or pay dues to a labor union. Vince Vernuccio of the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy tells us why the home state of the powerful United Auto Workers union has embraced labor freedom instead ...

Ben Domenech talks with David John of The Heritage Foundation about Social Security and entitlement reform. ...

Tax cuts that are phased in, temporary, Keynesian in nature, and coupled with uncontrolled spending are hardly market-oriented policies, says Matthew Mitchell of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, who explains why the Bush-era tax cuts failed to achieve their promises. ...