Even though I’m not a Romney fan, I sometimes feel compelled to defend him against leftist demagoguery. But instead of writing about tax havens, as I’ve done in the past, today we’re going to look at incremental tax reform. The left has been loudly asserting that the…
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.
Our Government’s Shameful Priorities: Heavier Punishment for Bank Account Reporting Miscue than for Child Porn
If you can read the following and not get upset, you are not a good person. Please move to France (where higher taxes are “patriotic”) and don’t come back. I’m engaging in a bit of hyperbole, but you’ll hopefully understand after reading this excerpt from a very…
The White House Is Crazy to Invite a Comparison of Job Creation under Reagan and Obama
I’ve done a few comparisons of economic performance under Reagan and Obama, sometimes using the interactive data from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank. And I’ve done a few TV interviews on the same subject. But something was very different in this interview…
Maybe It Is Possible to Reform Health Entitlements
I’m never guilty of being an optimist, but two items caught my attention today that suggest the tide may be turning on entitlement reform. We’ll start with something from the New York Times. Regular readers know that I’ve criticized that paper on a few occasions….
Germany’s Dark Vision for Europe
Like Sweden and Denmark, Germany is a semi-rational welfare state. It generally relies on a market-oriented approach in areas other than fiscal policy, and it avoided the Keynesian excesses that caused additional misery and red ink in America (though it is far from…
For Once, I Hope Paul Krugman Is Right
It’s not often that I read something by Paul Krugman and think, “Good point, I hope he’s correct.” After all, I had to correct Krugman’s inaccurate analysis of Estonia, and also point out the errors in what he wrote about the United Kingdom. And I also noted mistakes…
Left-Wingers Are only Generous with other People’s Money
Back in 2010, I posted some fascinating (at least to me) data on the underlying differences between conservatives, liberals, and libertarians. That same year, I also wrote about whether evolutionary history helps explain why some people are leftists. Let’s now…
It’s Simple to Balance the Budget with Modest Spending Restraint
Now that new numbers have been released by the Congressional Budget Office, it’s time once again for me to show how easy it is to balance the budget with modest spending restraint (though please remember our goal should be smaller government, not fiscal balance). I…
A Video on America’s Looming Fiscal Collapse from the Folks at Government Gone Wild
Here’s a riddle for policy wonks. What do you get if you take my videos on the economics of government spending and mix them in a blender with my videos on America’s entitlement crisis? You get this concise but compelling video from the Blaise Ingoglia at Government…
Somebody Should Tell Politicians that the Military Budget is for National Defense, not Pork and Political Correctness
I agree with George Will that it’s okay to reduce Pentagon spending. After all, the United States accounts for almost one-half of the world’s military outlays, about twice as much as the combined total of possible enemies. But I also agree that national defense is one…