Chris Edwards is an economist at the Cato Institute, where he has served as Director of Tax Policy and Director of Tax Policy Studies, and where he heads the Downsizing Government project and edits downsizinggovernment.org. He is the author of Downsizing the Federal Government and co-author of Global Tax Revolution. He appeared on The Bob Zadek Show as a recurring guest on federal spending, tax policy and infrastructure, and host Bob Zadek introduced him in 2017 as the person who had been on the show more than any other guest. A Libertarian Infrastructure Plan (2017)
Farm subsidies and corporate welfare
Edwards’s first appearance in the surviving excerpts, in January 2011, concerned farm subsidies. Zadek framed the program as out of control, benefiting nobody and costing at least $25 billion, and asked Edwards whether he exaggerated. Edwards answered that he did not, calling farm subsidies the biggest business subsidy or corporate welfare program in the entire federal budget, with a direct cost to taxpayers of $25 billion a year. He said the program benefits essentially wealthy farm businesses, describing it as reverse Robin Hood — taking from average taxpayers and giving to the wealthy — and concluded that it makes absolutely no sense. Farming Subsidies (2011)
Infrastructure and privatization
In a July 2017 episode devoted to infrastructure, Zadek opened with Milton Friedman’s remark that it costs any government at least twice as much to do something as it costs anyone else, and challenged the political narrative that American infrastructure is decrepit and declining. He defined infrastructure as roads, bridges, airports, train lines and air traffic control, and asked who owns it, who should own it, who should maintain it, who should build it and how it should be paid for. Edwards, introduced as an expert on federal and state tax and budget issues, discussed the state of American infrastructure and the benefits of private ownership and management, arguing that market forces are more efficient than government spending and that much of the nation’s most vital infrastructure is already privately held. A Libertarian Infrastructure Plan (2017)
Deficits, spending and the Biden agenda
In December 2020, Edwards returned to discuss what Zadek called the deepening hole: the federal deficit and the incoming Biden administration’s proposed $7 trillion in new spending. Zadek said the money would come from taxpayers and asked what would happen as a result. Edwards recalled that the Downsizing Government website had been named when Obama came into office in 2008 and promised to go through the federal budget and cut out wasteful programs, and that Obama did not cut wasteful programs at all. He contrasted that with Biden, who he said was coming into office not promising to cut or trim any waste but promising to spend $7 trillion more, and said the country was going in a disastrous direction. Is it too late to step back from the edge of fiscal insanity? (2020)
Later in the same episode the conversation turned to tax transparency. Zadek argued that consumers ultimately pay all taxes, that sales taxes are buried in prices, and that he would pray for every consumer to receive one bill stating their pro-rata share of running government, predicting a second American Revolution against the high cost; he said government has been skillful at having others be its tax collector so that they get the heat and not the government. Edwards agreed entirely that taxes are the price of government and that the price should be labeled clearly and transparently, comparing it to the clear labeling of prices in a grocery store or at Walmart. He proposed eliminating excess tax bases at both the federal and state levels, giving as examples that Washington state has a sales tax and not an income tax, and Oregon an income tax and not a sales tax, and calling each a good system. He said such simplification would make taxes transparent and visible so that people can see the burden of government. Is it too late to step back from the edge of fiscal insanity? (2020)
Debt and taxes
A November 2021 episode covered tax policy, the historical context of the 16th Amendment, and the potential economic consequences of proposed wealth and billionaire taxes, along with how tax structures affect innovation through angel investment. Edwards argued that when wealth comes from innovation it benefits all of us, and said he was baffled by where people like Bernie Sanders think innovation comes from, asserting that it is not from the government. He cited Apple Computer as an example of a startup company founded on bold individual ideas that found private funding, and the breakthrough vaccines from Moderna of Massachusetts and BioNTech of Germany as privately funded innovations that did not depend on government subsidies. He said it was great that Moderna was making profits on its vaccine, because it would invest those profits into new innovations and development, and concluded that innovation and wealth go hand in hand, that the private sector can do it and always has, and that the government cannot. Debt & Taxes (2021)
On the national debt, Zadek noted that predictions of a tipping point had recurred throughout his life and asked how one would know when the tipping point had really been reached. Edwards answered that all debt is a cost pushed forward to the future, that the $28 trillion of borrowings would ultimately have to be repaid in interest and principal, and that every dollar of it reduces the standard of living of children in the future. He said that when countries get above around 90% of GDP in debt it really starts reducing economic growth, and that Greece, when it went into its big crisis a decade or so earlier, was at about the same level of debt as the United States. He distinguished the question of whether debt will precipitate a giant financial crisis from the question of when, saying he thought it would but that no one knows when. Debt & Taxes (2021)
Zadek objected that comparing Greece with the United States may be misleading because Greece was not the reserve currency, and that the dynamics differ between people stopping buying US debt and stopping buying Greek debt. Edwards replied that because the United States is about a fifth of the entire world economy, a giant financial crisis there would be much more disastrous for the global economy than Greece’s was for Europe, and that in his view it is even worse for a big country like the United States to be in debt than a small country like Greece. Debt & Taxes (2021)
Across episodes
Edwards appears in excerpts from 2011, 2017, 2020 and 2021, and the same underlying question — how much government should spend and who should pay — is argued across all of them, but the excerpts show no development in his position: farm subsidies are corporate welfare in 2011, infrastructure should be privately owned in 2017, the Biden spending agenda is disastrous and taxes should be transparent in 2020, and innovation is private while debt burdens the future in 2021. What changes between episodes is the occasion rather than the argument, with Zadek supplying the framing each time — a $25 billion subsidy program, a Friedman quotation, a $7 trillion spending proposal, a $28 trillion debt — and Edwards supplying the same conclusion. A separate 2019 episode on the 1933 debt default features Sebastian Edwards, a different guest, and does not involve Chris Edwards. Farming Subsidies (2011) A Libertarian Infrastructure Plan (2017) Is it too late to step back from the edge of fiscal insanity? (2020) Debt & Taxes (2021)
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state Edwards’s educational background, the date he joined the Cato Institute, or any previous government or academic positions. They do not give his full title consistently — he is called Director of Tax Policy, Director of Tax Policy Studies, and Director of Tax Policy over at Cato — and they do not resolve which is current. They contain no discussion of his views on monetary policy, foreign policy, or social issues, and no reply from any interlocutor other than Zadek. The 2011 farm subsidy excerpt ends after Edwards’s opening answer, so the remainder of that episode’s argument is not available here.
Episodes
4 appearances, 2011–2021.
- Farming Subsidies (2011) — Federal farm subsidies and corporate welfare. Director of Tax Policy at the Cato Institute
- A Libertarian Infrastructure Plan (2017) — American infrastructure and the benefits of privatization. Director of Tax Policy Studies at the Cato Institute
- Is it too late to step back from the edge of fiscal insanity? (2020) — Federal deficit and Biden administration spending plans. Cato Institute
- Debt & Taxes (2021) — Principles of tax policy and proposed wealth taxes. Director of Tax Policy at Cato