by Dan Mitchell | Jun 18, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs
Back in 2014, I wrote a column asking my leftist friends two very serious questions. And I often repeat these questions when debating proponents of bigger government. Can you name a nation that became rich with statist policies? Can you name a nation that with...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 17, 2017 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
Whenever I debate my left-wing friends on tax policy, they routinely assert that taxes don’t matter. They argue that we don’t have to worry about the Laffer Curve because high tax rates don’t discourage taxable income. They argue that we don’t have to worry about...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 16, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
There’s a lot to admire about Switzerland, particularly compared to its profligate neighbors. It has a spending cap, imposed in a landslide referendum early last decade, that has constrained the growth of government. It has a genuinely decentralized system with a very...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 15, 2017 | Blogs, Economics
I’ve written (many, many times) about how the best way to help the poor is to focus on economic growth rather than inequality. After all, in a genuine market economy (as opposed to socialism, cronyism, or some other form of statism), the poor aren’t poor because some...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 13, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
I don’t like international bureaucracies that push statist policies. In a perverse way, though, I admire their brassiness. They’re now arguing that higher taxes are good for growth. This isn’t a joke. They never offer any evidence, of course, but it’s now routine to...
