Examples of government waste are not hard to find in Washington DC, but identifying the worst, most egregious instances of destructive spending is more difficult. Based on the facts cited by a new CF&P Libertas published earlier this week, a strong case can be made that subsidies to the OECD are, dollar-for-dollar, the worst use of taxpayer funds because it hurts economic growth and undermines competition. The OECD, furthermore, pushes class-warfare and favors big government. Some of the highlights (or lowlights, as it were) from the Libertas:
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a Paris-based bureaucracy which increasingly promotes a big government agenda. In recent years the organization has supported for the U.S. a value-added tax, Obamacare style healthcare, cap-and-trade or carbon taxes, and stimulus spending.
…U.S. taxpayers shoulder a disproportionate share – nearly one-fourth – of the OECD’s budget, yet receive little to no benefit in return. In fact, the OECD frequently pushes for policies both within the U.S. and internationally that are not in the interest of the United States, and would increase the tax burdens on U.S. citizens, inhibit the free flow of capital, and reduce economic prosperity.
Dan Mitchell also did an excellent job laying out the history of the OECD and further making the case for its placement at the wasteful spending list:
- The OECD has an anti-tax competition project designed to prop up Europe’s bankrupt welfare states.
- The OECD is pushing a “Multilateral Convention” that is designed to become something akin to a World Tax Organization, with the power to persecute nations with free-market tax policy.
- The OECD has endorsed Obama’s class-warfare agenda, publishing documents endorsing “higher marginal tax rates” so that the so-called rich “contribute their fair share.”
- The OECD pulled off a hat trick of bad policy in a 2010 document, promoting a value-added tax, Obama’s global warming agenda, and failed Keynesian stimulus.
- The OECD endorsed Obamacare, as I explain in this video.
- The OECD even advocates higher taxes when nations are in the middle of economic crisis.
Finally, this CF&P Prosperitas provides a more in-depth look at the OECD’s destructive agenda, and this video from CF&P’s Economic Lessons Series further highlights the organization’s efforts at pushing a big government agenda:
