There are a handful of issues that expose hypocrites on both sides of the philosophical spectrum. Republicans and conservatives love to talk about free markets, for instance, but you often find them voting for completely sleazy and corrupt forms of corporate welfare…
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.
Fiscal Suicide and Government-Subsidized Prayer in Israel
I continue to be amazed at the creative ways that politicians buy votes with other people’s money. Here’s an article from the LA Times discussing the warnings of an Israeli economist about the long-term fiscal crisis his country faces because – at…
An Example of "Bloated" Government
I”m not even sure what to say about this story about new legislation being proposed that would have the federal government track the “Body Mass Index” of American children and spend lots of money and impose lots of rules to reduce childhood obesity….
Portugal Digs Itself into a Deeper Hole with Tax Increases
I feel like a broken record when I write about European fiscal policy. In almost all cases, I cite OECD data showing that countries are in fiscal trouble because of excessive spending rather than inadequate tax revenue. I then show that the politicians are using the…
Terminating Welfare in California?
It’s probably just a insincere negotiating ploy, but Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed to eliminate a major welfare program in California. This article from the Sacramento Bee notes that the Governator also wants to cut bureaucrat pay and impose other…
Obama Seeking Less Competent Bureaucrats.
Here’s some grim news I saw linked to on NRO. Obama wants to lower the bar and reduce the competency of people working in the federal bureaucracy. To be sure, I doubt the “knowledge skills and ability essays” actually produced quality bureaucrats,…
Should the United Nations Get to Tax the Internet, ATM Withdrawals, and Air Travel?
Here’s a very disturbing report from FoxNews.com about a scheme at the United Nations to impose global taxes. This has been a long-time dream of the bureaucrats, who (naturally) are exempt from paying tax themselves. Here’s a link to a report I wrote on a…
The Next Ronald Reagan?
Very rarely does one find a politician with the moral clarity to provide the blunt and necessary truth about a controversial issue, but that has finally happened. But this is a good news/bad news situation for American taxpayers. The good news is that a politician has…
Shocking News: People Are Less Likely to Work When Government Subsidizes Joblessness.
Kudos to the Detroit News for a great story revealing that people are refusing to accept jobs because of government unemployment benefits. In a perverse way, I admire the one guy who admits that he doesn’t plan to find work until the government stops sending him…
Why Do I Hate Republicans? Let Me Count the Ways.
Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, but I had to paraphrase her famous line after reading this Bill McGurn column in the Wall Street Journal about how Republican poliitcal hacks in the Illinois state legislature voted to kill a voucher bill that would have…