By Daniel J. Mitchell
When Ronald Reagan said that big government undermined the economy, some people dismissed his comments because of his philosophical belief in liberty. And when I discuss my work on the economic impact of government spending, I often get the same reaction. This is why it’s important that a growing number of establishment outfits are slowly [...]
Data in New World Bank Report Shows that Large Public Sectors Reduce Economic Growth is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
…is that it overshadowed news that the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to repeal one of two new entitlement programs created by Obamacare—the ironically named CLASS Act—with a bipartisan three-fifths majority. (With numbers like that, Congress could even repeal Obamacare’s death panel!) But really, one private organization pulling funding for another private organization is way [...]
The Real Tragedy of the Komen/Planned Parenthood Flapdoodle is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
By Daniel J. Mitchell
Back in 2010, I crunched the numbers from the Congressional Budget Office and reported that the budget could be balanced in just 10 years if politicians exercised a modicum of …
New Congressional Budget Office Numbers Once Again Show that Modest Spending Restraint Would Eliminate Red Ink is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
By Daniel J. Mitchell
One year ago, I wrote about how the French government was getting unexpected additional revenues following the implementation of lower tax rates.
This is the Laffer Curve in action, and it’s …
The Laffer Curve Works, Even in France is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
By Daniel J. Mitchell
I don’t blame Democrats for wanting to seduce Republicans into a tax-increase trap. Indeed, I completely understand why some Democrats said their top political goal was getting the GOP to surrender the no-tax-hike position. I’m mystified, though, why some Republicans are willing to walk into such a trap. If you were playing chess against someone, [...]
Illinois Downgrade: More Evidence that Higher Taxes Make Fiscal Problems Worse is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
By Daniel J. Mitchell
Austan Goolsbee, the former Chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, had a column in the Wall Street Journal that argues government spending isn’t too high. That’s obviously a silly assertion, as I explain here, here, and here, but I want to focus on what he wrote about tax revenues. Here’s the relevant passage [...]
Austan Goolsbee’s Budget Math Is Wrong – More than 100 Percent of Long-Term Fiscal Challenge Is Government Spending is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
By Daniel J. Mitchell
I’ve written before about whether California is the Greece of America, in part because of crazy policies such as overpaid bureaucrats and expensive forms of political correctness, And we all know that California has one of the nation’s greediest governments, imposing confiscatory tax rates on a shrinking pool of productive citizens. So it is hardly [...]
Will the Last Job Creator to Leave California Please Turn Off the Lights? is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
By Daniel J. Mitchell
I’m not a big fan of Senator Schumer of New York. As I’ve noted before, he’s a doctrinaire statist who wants the government to have control over just about every aspect of our lives. But that describes a lot of people in Washington. I guess what also bothers me is his willingness to say anything, [...]
Senator Schumer’s Feeble Grasp of Fiscal History is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
By Daniel J. Mitchell
Europe is in the midst of a fiscal crisis caused by too much government spending, yet many of the continent’s politicians want the European Central Bank to purchase the dodgy debt of reckless welfare states such as Spain, Italy, Greece, and Portugal in order to prop up these big government policies. So it’s especially noteworthy [...]
European Central Bank Research Shows that Government Spending Undermines Economic Performance is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
By Daniel J. Mitchell
When I think about taxes, my first instinct is to rip up the corrupt internal revenue code and implement a simple and fair flat tax. When I think about Social Security, my first instinct is to copy dozens of other nations and implement personal retirement accounts. Unfortunately, the political system rarely generates opportunities to enact [...]
The Less-than-Thrilled Case for Extending the Payroll Tax Holiday is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »