I’ll be first in line if there’s a contest over who thinks most strongly thatpoliticians are corrupt, or whether they can waste money in creative ways. But if somebody asserts that politicians are stupid, I’m going to argue on the other side. This isn’t because I’m a…
Dan Mitchell
Daniel J. Mitchell is the President of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation. Dr. Mitchell advocates limited government and fundamental tax reform, and is the nation’s leading opponent of tax harmonization schemes developed by the Brussels-based European Union, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations.
In addition to fiscal policy, Dr. Mitchell is a trenchant observer of economic developments and an expert on Social Security reform – particularly the fiscal policy impact of reform and what the US can learn from other nations that have created personal retirement accounts.
A Humorous Look at a Socialist President
Very few political cartoons make me laugh out loud. Even when I look back at the all-time favorites that I included in my political cartoonist contest, most of them are on that list because they make a very effective and clever point about public policy. Though I do…
Message from the Political Class: All Your Money Belongs to Us
What’s the defining characteristic of our political masters? Going all the way back to when they ran for student council in 6th grade, is it a craven desire to say or do anything to get elected? Is it the corrupt compulsion to trade earmarks, loopholes, and favors in…
Goldilocks, Canada, and the Size of Government
I feel a bit like Goldilocks. No, this is not a confession about cross-dressing or being transsexual. I’m the boring kind of libertarian. Instead, I have a run-of-the-mill analogy. Think about when you were a kid and your parents told you the story of Goldilocks and…
Obamacare and the Corruption of the Rule of Law
We’ve reached the stage where Obamacare is the punchline to a bad joke. The law has been a disaster, both for the economy and for the Democratic Party. Not that we should be surprised. You don’t get better healthcare with a poisonous recipe of higher taxes, added…
The Wages of Cronyism, Big Government, and Corruption
The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death,” but the same can’t be said of Washington, DC. The bureaucrats, lobbyists, politicians, contractors, insiders, cronyists, and influence peddlers have rigged the system so that they get rich by diverting money from people…
A Single Picture to Show that Many Nations Are Economically Doomed
Over the years, I’ve shared many charts, graphs, and tables to help people understand that the welfare state is fundamentally unsustainable. And, assuming there’s not genuine entitlement reform, many of these fiscal estimates show that the United States has a very…
Crying About Obamacare
I asked back in September whether all the bad news about Obamacare meant it was time to feel sorry for President Obama and other statists. Some people apparently didn’t realize I was being sarcastic, so I got some negative feedback. I’ve since learned to be more…
A Primer on the Laffer Curve to Help Understand Why Obama’s Class-Warfare Tax Policy Won’t Work
My main goal for fiscal policy is shrinking the size and scope of the federal government and lowering the burden of government spending. But I’m also motivated by a desire for better tax policy, which means lower tax rates, less double taxation, and fewer corrupting…
New CBO Numbers Show a Remarkably Simple Path to a Balanced Budget
A just-released report from the bean counters at the Congressional Budget Office is getting lots of attention because the bureaucrats are now admitting that Obamacare will impose much more damage to the economy than they previously predicted. Of course, many people…