As a fiscal policy economist, one of my responsibilities is to educate policy makers about the impact of taxation. Simply stated, I try to help them understand that taxes alter behavior. If you tax something at a higher rate, you get less of whatever is being taxed….
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.
More Compelling Evidence that America’s Corporate Tax System Is Pointlessly Destructive
It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the United States has the world’s worst corporate tax system. We definitely have the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, and we may have the highest corporate tax rate in the entire world depending on how…
Very Good News: The Tea Party Has Altered the Spending Trajectory in Washington
Why does the Tea Party attract such vitriolic opposition, whether from Obama’s IRS or big-government Republicans like Karl Rove? The answer is simple. People in Washington don’t like the Tea Party because this citizen uprising is making it difficult to engage in…
More Americans Going Galt
President Obama promised he would unite the world…and he’s right. Representatives from dozens of nations have bitterly complained about an awful piece of legislation, called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), that was enacted back in 2010. They despise…
More Double Taxation of Dividends and Capital Gains Would Turn Tax Reform into Tax Deform
Even though I’m a big fan of tax reform, I explained back in June that I’m not very comfortable with the “blank slate” tax reform plan put forth by Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT). My main gripe is that they start with the assumption that there…
Left-Wing Nursery Rhymes
I’ve already shared the statist version of the fairy tale about The Little Red Hen. And I’ve also shared the Obama version of the fable about The Ant and the Grasshopper. So how about the left-wing version of The Little Engine that Could. Or, in this case, couldn’t. I…
Deconstructing Barack Obama, Part III
Two days ago, I shared an insightful article from Kevin Williamson as we contemplated the President’s ideology. Yesterday, we reviewed an article by Richard Epstein in hopes of deciphering Obama’s approach to economic policy. Let’s conclude our series by looking at…
Deconstructing Barack Obama, Part II
Yesterday, Part I of this series looked at what motivates Barack Obama. We reviewed a Kevin Williamson column that made a strong case that Obama is an ends-justifies-the-means statist. Today, we’re going to look at the President’s approach to economic policy and we’ll…
Deconstructing Barack Obama, Part I
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…
Why Do Bureaucrats Hate Bambi?
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…