Tom Giovanetti is president of the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), a conservative, free-market public policy research organization based in Dallas, Texas.
In addition to his administrative duties, Tom writes for IPI and for leading publications on a variety of policy topics including taxes and economic growth, self-government and the Founders' design, civil liberties and constitutional protections, judicial supremacy, intellectual property, Social Security personal accounts, technology and Internet policy, and out-of-control government spending. In addition to being regularly published in major outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, FoxNews.com and The Dallas Morning News, Tom has a regular column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Tom frequently appears in the media and is a fill-in host for the Mark Davis Show in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.
Tom's passion is encouraging conservative voters and organizations to remain skeptical of Big Government, maintain faith in markets, and defend individual liberty as the best means of achieving human flourishing. His most recent work has focused on free-market solutions to the student debt issue, preserving freedom of speech online, and persuading state legislatures to override local and municipal policies that restrict economic liberty.
Mr. Giovanetti has represented IPI at many national and international organizations, including the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) the World Health Organization (WHO) and represented IPI during trade agreement negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Mr. Giovanetti is a popular speaker and writer, and also testifies before state and federal legislative committees on a variety of topics.
Follow Tom on Twitter at @tgiovanetti
How Texas Business May Fare from the 2023 Texas Legislative Session (Audio: Podcast)
Special Guest Annie Spilman, Texas State Director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), shares with us NFIB’s policy priorities for the 2023 Texas Legislative Session. Annie points out the harm of the “inventory tax” (personal business property tax), the gross receipts tax, and the problem of health care costs for small businesses. With IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews.
Is a Four-Day Workweek or School Week In Your Future? (Audio: Podcast)
IPI Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews has noticed a somewhat under-the-radar trend of school districts moving to four-day school weeks, and more and more businesses doing the same. A four-day work week isn’t a new concept, except this time it involves a reduced number of work hours per week. Is this a good trend? Is it an effect of the Covid-19 pandemic? And is this even a policy issue? With IPI President Tom Giovanetti.
When Government Pressures Big Tech (Audio: Podcast)
The “Twitter Files” have revealed federal agencies making requests and even pressuring Twitter and other social media platforms to influence their content moderation decisions. What happens when government and private entities cooperate? Is there anything new about this? When should we be concerned, and when do private entities become “quasi-government actors?” Is there any such thing as a quasi-government actor? IPI Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews, Senior Research Fellow Bartlett Cleland, and President Tom Giovanetti discuss the news and the issues involved.
Is DirectTV Censoring Newsmax? (Audio: Podcast)
Yet another retransmission dispute involves DirectTV refusing to accede to NewsMax’s demand for higher carriage fees. We see this as a business dispute between two private companies, but a group of conservatives is complaining that DirectTV is “censoring” NewsMax for its conservative news coverage. IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Senior Research Fellow Bartlett Cleland talk through the issues involved, including whether private entities can engage in true censorship at all.
Should Social Security and Medicare be 'Off the Table'? (Audio: Podcast)
The most dramatic moment of Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union Address was when he accused Republicans of wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare, to which Republicans vociferously objected. When President Biden reacted by saying “Okay, I guess we all agree that Social Security and Medicare are off the books,” almost the entire chamber rose to its feet and cheered, but the hearts of policy experts around the country sank. That’s because, if anything, the single most important domestic policy issue should be making the necessary changes to our entitlement programs that protect current recipients while giving future recipients realistic expectations and time to prepare. Congress may be afraid to talk about entitlement reform, but IPI is not. With IPI Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews and President Tom Giovanetti.
IPI Policy Basics: Every Law Should Have an Expiration Date (Audio: Podcast)
In legislation, “sunset” means that a law or agency or regulation has a built-in date at which it disappears in a poof of common sense unless specifically reauthorized by the legislature. This is a good idea that would prevent the continual accumulation of archaic, redundant and overlapping government functions. Sunset review is a forcing function that would create predictable opportunities to review, modify, modernize and streamline government functions, and to occasionally phase out unnecessary functions. With IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews.
The Public Health-ization of Policy (Audio: Podcast)
IPI President Tom Giovanetti wonders how the Biden administration knows it can schedule the cancellation of the federal Covid-19 emergency order in May, since that’s now how emergencies work. If you already know when it’s going to be over, it’s not an emergency. This prompts a discussion about the use of emergency orders by executive branch officers at both the state and federal levels to advance policy goals that can’t be achieved through legislation, and the likely need for legislatures to rein in the emergency powers of their executives. With IPI Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews.
The High Cost of Educating Children of Illegal Immigrants (Audio: Podcast)
IPI’s Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews makes a back-of-the-envelope guesstimation about how much states spend on education for children of illegal immigrants, since the Supreme Court has found that such children are entitled to a public education. The point: While we at IPI are proponents of significant legal immigration, It costs states a LOT to educate children of illegal immigrants, and the likelihood is that illegal immigrants aren’t paying enough in taxes to offset the costs.
What's This About a National Sales Tax (Audio: Podcast)
A tempest in a teapot has erupted about Republicans wanting to slap a 30% “national sales tax” on American consumers. IPI was there at the beginning of the national sales tax proposal, so we give a history of the national sales tax, talk about its strengths and weakness, give credit where credit is due, and then suggest that it’s a politically untenable proposal and can only result in a self-inflicted wound on House Republicans. With IPI Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews and IPI President Tom Giovanetti.
IPI Policy Basics: The Role of Layoffs in the Economy (Audio: Podcast)
No one wants to be involuntarily released from their employment, but in a growing economy, layoffs represent the redeployment of human capital from less-productive to more-productive uses. With this understanding, policymakers should make it as easy as possible for people to change jobs and forms of income generation. Any policy that makes it harder to change jobs, start a business, or work a “gig economy” job creates friction slowing down the most efficient deployment of human capital. With IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews.
Democracy and Politics in Latin America (Audio: Podcast)
Special Guest Roberto Salinas of the Atlas Network talks with IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews about the current state of politics and democracy in Latin America, their economies, and the impact on immigration and the border crisis.
Oh, Look, I Have a Stack of Classified Documents Here by My Corvette (Audio: Podcast)
You can’t make this stuff up. Are the Trump and Biden classified document scandals different in any material way? Did the Biden people think they could keep this quiet? With IPI Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews and IPI President Tom Giovanetti.
IPI Policy Basics: Should We Limit the Debt Limit? (Audio: Podcast)
What is the debt ceiling, and why do we have it? How often does the debt ceiling come up, and isn’t it an anachronism, since Congress has already authorized that spending? Or is any leverage over spending worth preserving? IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews explain and discuss the debt ceiling, and remind us that the core problem is spending, not the debt limit.
Joe Biden, Welfare King
At the same time the Biden administration is bragging about its job creation numbers, President Biden has also dramatically increased the number of Americans on federal government assistance and would extend government welfare programs even more if he could. But increasing the number of Americans dependent on federal assistance is terrible fiscal, budgetary and moral policy. With IPI Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews and IPI President Tom Giovanetti.
IPI Policy Basics: Regular Order, How Congress Is Supposed to Work (Audio: Podcast)
What is “regular order” for Congress and why is that better governance than the annual drama and circus we see now every year with continuing resolutions and gigantic, must-pass omnibus spending bills? Was the old way better? Tom Giovanetti, Merrill Matthews.
Total Records: 433
