Back in 2009, I wrote about various schemes to impose taxes on unhealthy food. At the time, I was primarily concerned about the risks of giving politicians a new source of revenue that would be used to increase the burden of government spending. The folks at Reason TV…
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.
Great Moments in Foreign Government: Taxpayer-Financed Friends for Mass Murderers
While most of my disdain is focused on the clowns in Washington, I enjoy poking fun at the policies adopted by the various nitwits and thugs that can be found in other governments. That’s why I’ve mocked the British government-run healthcare system for letting a woman…
Estonia and Austerity: Another Exploding Cigar for Paul Krugman
I have great fondness for Estonia, in part because it was the first post-communist nation to adopt the flat tax, but also because of the country’s remarkable scenery. Most recently, though, I’ve been bragging about Estonia (along with Latvia and Lithuania, the other…
Will More Federal Debt Improve the U.S. Government’s Creditworthiness?
Writing in yesterday’s Washington Post, former Obama economist Larry Summers put forth the strange hypothesis that more red ink would improve the federal government’s long-run fiscal position. This sounds like an excuse for more Keynesian spending as part of another…
The Great Tax Haven Debate, Part II
Back in April, responding to an article written by Ann Hollingshead for the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development, I wrote a long post defending so-called tax havens. I went through the trouble of a point-by-point response because her article was…
Contract for Buffalo Teachers Shows the Wrong Way of Cutting Excess Bureaucratic Blubber
Government bureaucrats are significantly overpaid compared to folks in the productive sector of the economy. So you would think I’d support cuts, especially the kind that get rid of excess blubber in the government workforce. But not when it means higher costs for…
North Carolina’s Attempted Censorship Shows How State Governments also Are a Threat to Liberty
I spend much of my time focusing on the dangers of a bloated federal government. And if you’ve ever paid attention to the name of this blog, you know I have a special interest in monitoring the ill-advised actions of foreign governments. But that doesn’t mean I have a…
More Sub-Par Employment Numbers
The Labor Department just released its monthly employment report and the White House is probably not happy. There are several key bits of data in the report, such as the unemployment rate, net job creation, and employment-population ratio. At best, the results are…
The Steroid-Pumped Version of “Taxes Are for the Little People”
I’m not a big fan of international bureaucracies, mostly because they always seem to promote bad policy such as higher tax rates. The International Monetary Fund is urging higher tax rates and pushing for nations to replace flat tax systems with so-called progressive…
Those Sneaky Canadians Are Overtaking the United States
I’m not quite ready to trade places with Canada, but it may just be a matter of time. Like Germany and Sweden, they seem to be slowly but surely trying to move in the right direction. I’ve already commented on good Canadian fiscal policy (including a much-needed…