by Dan Mitchell | Jul 9, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I spend a lot of my time fretting about how federal spending is going to become an ever-larger (and unsustainable) burden in the future. And I periodically will write about how I wish we still had the very small federal government envisioned by the Founding Fathers...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 8, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, States, Taxation
Here’s what I wrote last month about the fiscal situation in Illinois. Illinois is a mess. Taxes and spending already are too high, and huge unfunded liabilities point to an even darker future. Simply stated, politicians and government employee unions have created an...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 7, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve, States, Taxation
Back at the end of April, President Trump got rolled in his first big budget negotiation with Congress. The deal, which provided funding for the remainder of the 2017 fiscal year, was correctly perceived as a victory for Democrats. How could this happen, given that...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 6, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
The welfare state is bad news for both taxpayers and recipients. Pervasive handouts also are a mistake because they create incentives for very bad behavior. And I’m not just talking about the incentive not to work. Welfare enables and encourages utterly horrifying...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 5, 2017 | Blogs, Uncategorized
I like sharing topical items around the 4th of July. In 2010, I contemplated the challenging issue of libertarians and patriotism. My view, for what it’s worth, is captured by this t-shirt. In 2011, I pondered research about the partisan implications of patriotism and...
