The Prof G Pod · Vox Media Podcast Network

How Do We Fix America’s Tax Problem? — with Senator Cory Booker

March 26, 2026·53 min·4 clips

Booker: 93% of U.S. ag subsidies go to foods that make us sick — and that's why a Twinkie is cheaper than an apple.

Scott Galloway opens by laying out his Substack subscription strategy for Prop G Media before introducing Senator Cory Booker, whom he calls a raging moderate. Booker arrives out of breath from Senate floor votes. The first segment dissects the Keep Your Pay Act, which would make the first $75,000 of household income tax-free at a Yale Budget Lab cost of $5.5 trillion over ten years. Booker explains the offsets: a higher top income tax rate, a corporate rate moving from roughly 20 to 28 or 29 percent, and closing carried interest and stepped-up basis. He frames the bill as repairing the social contract for nurses, cops, and firefighters who pay higher effective rates than the wealthy. Galloway pushes back that the design favors the upper middle class because lower earners already pay little federal income tax. Booker responds with an expanded child tax credit and earned income tax credit, including expanding EITC eligibility to seniors over 65 and college students, and points to the Biden-era one-year CTC that cut child poverty roughly in half. They debate whether spending should be cut before any tax cuts. Booker says the U.S. is profligate in areas without good ROI, naming military waste — the Pentagon hasn't passed an audit in eight years — and recounts how he cut Newark's government 25 percent as mayor. He pitches immigration as a growth lever, citing his Newark turnaround and the loss of foreign Stanford grads on student visas. He proposes hiring IRS enforcement against high-end tax cheats to recover tens of billions. On entitlements, Booker reframes Medicare and Medicaid as a sickness problem driven by U.S. food policy. He says 93 percent of ag subsidies go to foods that make Americans sick, explains why a Twinkie is cheaper than an apple in his Newark neighborhood, and tells stories of constituents who reversed digestive disease and diabetes by sourcing from an urban farm he started as mayor. He references a Jim Murren anecdote about a Vegas casino bending its healthcare cost curve by replacing cafeteria deep fryers with chef-cooked meals. On Social Security he opposes raising the eligibility age, citing AI and automation, and prefers raising the cap above $160,000. On Iran he calls the war legally unjustified, points to Trump's contradictions on the nuclear program and regime change, and warns that drone warfare and the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint are doing lasting damage to the U.S. economy. He closes on Democratic strategy: he and a small group are forcing weekly Senate votes via privilege levers, predicts a 2026 wave or tsunami election, and says a $200 million crypto PAC mid-bill-negotiation plus $20 million primary threats from Trump or Elon Musk explain why Republicans bend the knee.

As heard by us

A sharp tax-and-deficit conversation that asks Cory Booker where fiscal responsibility gets politically uncomfortable.

The Prof G Pod turns America's tax problem into a test of fiscal seriousness, with Scott Galloway pressing Senator Cory Booker on the parts of the deficit debate politicians tend to avoid.

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Why you'd press play

Cory Booker gets handed the raging moderate label and leans into the fiscal discomfort.

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