by Dan Mitchell | Feb 9, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
When I debate one of my leftist friends about deficits, it’s often a strange experience because none of us actually care that much about red ink. I’m motivated instead by a desire to shrink the burden of government spending, so I argue for spending restraint rather...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 8, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
What best symbolizes France’s statist political culture? Is it a bloated public sector that consumes more than half of the economy’s output? Is it a tax system that is so onerous that households sometimes pay more than 100 percent of their income to the government? Is...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 7, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve put forth lots of arguments against tax increases, mostly focusing on why higher tax rates will depress growth and encourage more government spending. Today, let’s look at a practical, real-world example. I wrote a column for The Hill looking at why Greece...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 6, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs
Back in the 1980s, I would get very agitated when folks made excuses for brutal communist regimes by asserting that the United States also did bad things. This “moral equivalence” argument is now being recycled by Donald Trump, who basically excuses Putin’s brutality...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 5, 2017 | Blogs, Taxation
I’m obviously a big fan of a simple and fair flat tax. In part, my support for fundamental reform is driven by my desire for a low rate, for no double taxation, and for the elimination of loopholes. Those are the economic reasons for reform. But I also am very much...
