I recently gave five reasons why the shutdown fight was worthwhile and my number one reason was that it’s better to be on offense than defense. It seems I’m not the only one to reach this sensible conclusion. Here’s some of what Fred Barnes wrote today for the Wall…
Daily Analysis
The French Death Spiral
There’s a tendency in public life to exaggerate the positive or negative implications of any particular policy. This is why I try to be careful not to overstate the potential benefits of reforms I like, such as the flat tax. Yes, we would get better growth and there…
Lung Cancer, Heroin, and Government Spending
If this blog was an episode of Jeopardy, the response to the title of this post would be “Name three things that Dan Mitchell doesn’t like.” But this blog isn’t a game show. It’s a serious forum* for discussing how we protect freedom and prosperity from ever-expanding…
The Perverse Economics of Obamacare: Earn Less, Get More
Obamacare was put together by people who don’t understand economics. This is probably the understatement of the year since I could be referring to many features of the bad law. The higher tax burden on saving and investment, making an anti-growth tax system even…
Five Important Takeaways from the Government Shutdown-Debt Limit Fight
The wailing and hysteria in Washington is over. The politicians now have the authority to borrow more money and the bureaucrats are all back at work (rested and refreshed after their paid vacation, so they’ll probably tax, spend, and regulate with extra fervor). So…
Time to Get Rid of the National Park Service
President Obama thinks he can prevail in the government shutdown fight by deliberately making life as difficult as possible for the maximum number of ordinary Americans. We’ve seen this before. After suffering a defeat on the sequester, he made himself a laughingstock…
The “Third World Experience” of Obamacare
Back in 2009, before Obamacare, the United States had a healthcare system that was plagued by excessive government intervention, which led to a third-party-payer crisis and massive inefficiencies. Perversely, the President thought the way to solve these problems was…
More Academic Evidence that Bigger Government Means Less Prosperity
My goal in life is very simple. I want to promote freedom and prosperity by limiting the size and scope of government. That seems like a foolish and impossible mission, perhaps best suited for Don Quixote. After all, what hope is there of overcoming the politicians,…
The Sick Joke of Obama’s Shutdown Strategy
Even though it’s an uphill battle, I’m glad there are some lawmakers willing to fight Obamacare. They realize a hard battle today could help save America from genuine fiscal crisis in the future. I don’t know how this government-shutdown battle (which is morphing into…
Some Parts of Government Should Be Shut Down Forever
I realize we’re in the middle of a government shutdown and there’s a debt limit deadline rapidly approaching, but I’m not going to write about fiscal policy today. Instead, I’m going to share a story about evil and stupid government policy. I guess you could say this…