I’m often torn between optimism and pessimism about the future. In my cheerful moments, I marvel at the American system and cheer the private sector’s ability to adapt and survive even the stupidest government interventions. But at other times, I fret that those…
Daily Analysis
Let’s Copy the Baltic Nations and Really Cut Spending
All the talk of spending cuts in Washington is fictitious. Even the House Republican Study Committee budget allows spending to increase, on average, by 1.7 percent each year for the next decade. The Ryan budget, which critics deride for its “savage” cuts, allows…
Talking about the Debt Limit at a Tea Party Press Conference
I spoke yesterday at a press event put together by some of the Tea Party groups. Here’s what I said about the debt limit. I debunked the notion that a higher debt limit was needed to avoid default and explained that the problem is too much spending and that deficits…
With a Few More “Successes” Like the GM Bailout, We’ll Be Greece in Record Time
Most of us have probably heard the joke about the moronic salesman who admitted to losing money on each sale but was hoping to make it up with higher volume. E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post is taking this financial approach to a new level. His column today asserts…
From East Coast to West Coast, Bureaucrats Are Ripping Off Taxpayers
Let’s start in Washington, where USA Today reports that there are “at least 17,828 federal employees whose annualized salaries totaled $180,000 or more in September 2010.” That’s rather distressing news for taxpayers, but these excerpts from the story provide…
Do Budget Deficits Threaten American Competitiveness? Dan Mitchell vs. the Establishment
I recently took part in a symposium on “The Budget Deficit and U.S. Competitiveness.” Put together by the Council on Foreign Relations, five of us were asked to concisely explain our thoughts on the issue. Here’s some of what I wrote: Excessive government spending can…
New Job Numbers Are a Mixed Bag for the Economy, but Bad News for Obama
The Labor Department released its latest job numbers today and they remind me of Clint Eastwood’s 1966 classic, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” The good news is that the economy created 244,000 new jobs, the biggest gain in almost one year. And the jobs were in the…
Back-Door Tax Increases Are a Recipe for Bigger Government
Martin Feldstein’s on a roll, but not in a good way. Earlier this week in the Wall Street Journal, he advocated throwing in the towel on reforming Social Security into a system of personal retirement accounts. Today, in the New York Times, he endorses big tax…
Seven Reasons to Oppose Higher Taxes
As I have explained elsewhere, tax increases are a bad idea – unless you favor bigger government. And I’ve already added my two cents to the tax debate between Senator Coburn and Grover Norquist regarding the desirability of higher taxes. So it won’t surprise anyone…
Obama’s Medicare Appointee Has Accidental Encounter with Reality, Learns Nothing
I just read something that unleashed my inner teenager, because I want to respond with a combination of OMG, LMAO, and WTF. Donald Berwick, the person appointed by Obama to be in charge of Medicare, has a column in the Wall Street Journal that makes a very good…