by Dan Mitchell | Aug 17, 2016 | Blogs, Taxation
If I had to summarize my views on fiscal policy in just two sentences, here’s what I would say. Government spending undermines growth by diverting labor and capital from more productive uses to less productive uses. Tax rates on productive economic behaviors such as...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 16, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
Remember Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, the 1993 comedy classic about a weatherman who experiences the same day over and over again? Well, the same thing is happening in Japan. But instead of a person waking up and reliving the same day, we get politicians pursuing the...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 15, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy
Back in 2013, I got very upset when I learned that senior bureaucrats at the IRS awarded themselves big bonuses, notwithstanding the fact that the agency wasdeeply tarnished by scandal because of its efforts to help Obama’s reelection campaign. That’s when I decided...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 14, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy, Economics, Government Spending
I’ve written (some would say excessively) about the fact that America has too many bureaucrats and that they’re paid too much. That’s true in Washington. That’s true at the state level. And it’s true for local governments. But since I’m a big believer in beating a...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 13, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I need combat pay. Or maybe some kind of bonus for pain and suffering. First, I had to watch Donald Trump’s incoherent speech on the economy and try to decipher his mish-mash economic plan. And then, without the benefit of a lengthy vacation or counseling for...
