I’ve argued that Obama’s not a socialist. I wasn’t trying to defend him. I was simply making the point that it’s technically more accurate to refer to him as a statist or a corporatist. But he may be even worse than that, at least according to a must-read Kevin Williamson analysis of Obama for National […]

The bad news is that governments do a lot of things they shouldn’t do. The good news is that I never run out of material. I’ve even created some sub-categories, such as my U.S. vs U.K. government stupidity contest and my great-moments-in-local-government series. But I never thought I would have a special category about bureaucrats […]

I like tax havens for the simple reason that we need some ways of restraining the greed of the political class. Simply stated, if profligate politicians think that we are “captive customers,” they are much more likely to impose (even) higher tax rates (as we’ve seen in the past couple of years in Europe). But […]

President Obama made a much-hyped pivot-to-the-economy speech yesterday in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I already explained, immediately following the speech, why his “grand bargain” on corporate taxes was not a good deal because of all the hidden taxes on new investment and international competitiveness. But I also had a chance to dissect the President’s overall track record […]

In his latest pivot to jobs and the economy, the President spoke earlier today in Tennessee. Much of his speech was tax-spend-and-regulate boilerplate, but he did repackage some of his ideas into a so-called grand bargain. He said he’s willing to cut the corporate tax rate in exchange for a bunch of new spending on […]

In an interview last week about Detroit’s bankruptcy, I explained that the city got in trouble because of growing dependency and an ever-rising burden of government spending. I also warned that the federal government faces the same challenge. Washington is in trouble mostly because of poorly designed entitlement programs rather than excessive compensation for a […]

There are lots of despicable people in Washington engaged in a lot of unsavory behavior, so it would be very difficult to get agreement if you asked regular people to select the most odious feature of the political class. Many people would probably choose corruption as the defining characteristic of Washington, and it would be […]

I suggested last year that President Obama adopt “my work here is done” as a campaign slogan. Admittedly, that was merely an excuse to share this rather amusing poster (and you can see the same hands-on-hips pose, by the way, in this clever Michael Ramirez cartoon). But I want to make a serious point. For […]