I’ve complained over and over again that America’s tax code is a nightmare that undermines competitiveness and retards growth. Our aggregate fiscal burden may not be as high as it is for many of our foreign competitors, but high tax rates and poor design mean the system is very punitive on a per-dollar-raised basis. For more information, the Tax Foundation […]
read more...America’s health care system is a mess, and we can assign almost all the blame on government. Simply stated, we don’t have functioning and efficient markets because Medicaid, Medicare, tax-code distortions, and other forms of regulation and intervention have created a system that is crippled by a third-party payer crisis. There’s no logical reason to expect consumers to […]
read more...I’m very worried about the burden of government spending. Moreover, I’m quite concerned that poorly designed entitlement programs will lead to fiscal disaster. And I’m especially irked that Obama made the problem worse by ramming through yet another misguided and costly health care entitlement. Given this background, you can imagine that I was very interested (and depressed) to see […]
read more...Why is President Obama so fixated on a class-warfare agenda of higher taxes on the rich and government dependency for the poor? Is it because a tax-the-rich agenda is good politics, as determined by clever pollsters who have tapped into the collective mind of American voters (and as demonstrated by this cartoon)? Or is the President ideologically committed to […]
read more...When asked about the most worrisome statistic for a nation, I don’t say it’s the top marginal tax rate, even though I think class-warfare taxation is very poisonous for long-run economic performance. Nor do I say it’s the burden of government spending relative to private economic output, even though the size of the public sector gives us a good idea of the degree […]
read more...I periodically try to explain that there’s a big difference between being pro-market and pro-business. Simply stated, policy makers shouldn’t try to penalize businesses with taxes,mandates, and regulations. But neither should politicians seek to subsidize businesses. That’s why I’m against bailouts, subsidies, and other distortions that provide special favors for politically connected companies. I have nothing against companies earning money, to be sure, but […]
read more...I’m a pessimist about public policy for two simple reasons: 1) Seeking power and votes, elected officials generally can’t resist making short-sighted and politically motivated choices that expand the burden of government. 2) Voters are susceptible to bribery, particularly over time as social capital(the work ethic, spirit of self reliance, etc) erodes and the entitlement mentality takes […]
read more...Since I spend considerable time defending tax competition, fiscal sovereignty, and financial privacy, people sometimes think I can give competent advice on how best to protect one’s income from the IRS. Hardly. Like most people in Washington, I’m all theory and no practice. Besides, when people ask me about the ideal tax haven for an American citizen, I […]
read more...Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute looks at the topic of infrastructure spending and I’m left with mixed feelings. Some of what he writes is very good. Yes, the claims of an “infrastructure crisis” by President Obama, many liberals…are exaggerated. …yes, existing laws and regulations turn infrastructure projects into boondoggles that take an order of magnitude longer to complete […]
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