Last year, while lounging on the beach in the Caribbean…oops, I mean while doing off-site research, I developed the first iteration of a rule to describe how fiscal policy should operate. Good fiscal policy exists when the private sector grows faster than the public…
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.
New Research Shows Obamacare Resulted in 25 Additional Democratic Losses in 2010 Elections, but Was It a Long-Term Victory for the Left?
I like to think people in the United States still believe in liberty, and I’ve cited some polling data in support of American Exceptionalism. And it seems like that philosophical belief in individualism and limited government sometimes has an impact in the polling…
Financial Regulation, the Red-Tape Nightmare, and Anti-Money Laundering Laws
I’ve periodically written about the overall cost of regulation, and I’ve also highlighted the onerous costs of proposals such as the Dodd-Frank bailout bill. This blurb from the IFC Review may give readers a sense of the regulatory onslaught facing financial…
The Return of Much-Needed Medicaid Reform
Last year, I narrated a CF&P video making the case for Medicaid reform. The proposal is very simple: Replicate the success of the welfare reform of the 1990s by block granting the program and giving states full autonomy to figure out how best to provide health…
Great Moments in European Political Correctness
Europe is in shambles. Nations are going bankrupt. There are riots in the streets. So you would guess that the folks at the European Commission are focused on some big issues. But you would be wrong. The eurocrats in Brussels have much bigger fish to fry. They’re…
Saying No to Additional IMF Bailout Money Should Be a Minimum Test for the GOP
In a grand Washington tradition, I periodically make imperious demands. In the past year or two, I’ve issued the following ultimatums to the GOP. o No tax increases, since more money for Washington will encourage a bigger burden of government and undermine prosperity….
Should Politicians Go on Trial for Economic Negligence?
I like to think I despise politicians more than 99.9 percent of the population. Even in my kindest moments, I see them as occasionally well-intentioned souls who are easily corrupted. Most of the time, they are a plague on society, as this cartoon illustrates. So you…
How to Reconcile Liberty, Morality, Conservatism, and Libertarianism with Carney’s Fusionist Theorem
As a libertarian who became interested in public policy because of Ronald Reagan, it won’t surprise you to know that I’m more of a “right libertarian” than “left libertarian.” I fully agree with positions that motivate left libertarians, such as the war on drugs doing…
A Fiscal Policy Tutorial: Everything You Need to Know about the Economics of Government Spending
Almost exactly one year ago, I did a post entitled “A Laffer Curve Tutorial” because I wanted readers to have all the arguments and data in one place (and also because it meant I wouldn’t have to track down all the videos when someone asked me for the full set)….
In the Entire World, Is there Anybody Who Is Surprised that Obamacare Is Turning Out to Be Far More Expensive than the President Promised?
Washington is filled with people who exaggerate, prevaricate, dissemble, and obfuscate. And those are the people I like. The ones I don’t like are much worse. That’s why, during the Obamacare debate, I warned that the numbers were utterly dishonest. We were told, if…