Obama and the Democrats are trying to enact a third so-called stimulus (a.k.a., jobs bill). I’d make a joke about three strikes and your out, but we should remember that this is actually the fourth attempt since we should count Bush’s lame faux stimulus in…
Daily Analysis
Another Reason Why Welfare Is Economically Destructive
I’m normally not a big fan of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development since it is an international bureaucracy that persecutes low-tax jurisdictions. But the economists at the OECD sometimes do good work (the same can be said of the…
Producers on Strike
The Wall Street Journal wisely warns against drawing too many conclusions from one month’s job data, but they also point out that the economy is much weaker than the White House claimed – in large part because of a series of public policy decisions that…
The Sleazy Combination of Big Business and Big Government
There’s an article in the Wall Street Journal showing how already-established companies and their union allies will use the coercive power of government to thwart competition. The article specifically discusses efforts by less competitive supermarkets to block…
You Don't Need to Waste More Money to Shrink Government.
It’s rather symbolic of what’s wrong with Washington that a commission ostensibly created to promote deficit reduction is seeking a bigger budget, as noted in the Tax Notes story excerpted below. Rather than impose a bigger burden on taxpayers, though, I…
Will Higher Tax Rates in 2011 Cause an Economic Collapse?
Art Laffer has a compelling column in the Wall Street Journal, where he makes the case that future tax rate increases will cause considerable economic damage because people have an incentive to maximize income this year to take advantage of current tax rates –…
Taxpayers vs. Bureaucrats, Part XXIX
This story from Philadelphia, which I saw on Reason’s Hit and Run blog, is one of the worst examples I’ve ever seen of government bureaucrats bilking taxpayers. The City Manager, who already receives an absurdly extravagent salary and hasn’t even…
The Problem Is Big Government, not Campaign Contributions
A Washington Post columnist is understandably disgusted that Congressman Jim Moran is a corrupt thief who swaps earmarks for campaign cash, but she draws the wrong conclusion. The problem is not campaign contributions. That’s just the symptom. The real problem…
Taxpayers vs. Bureaucrats, Part XXVIII
You might think I would be past the point of being surprised about excessive pay for bureaucrats, especially after narrating the new video for the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, but even I’m shocked by this New York Times story about bloated pay for…
The Parasites on the Left Are Making a Big Mistake by Stealing too Much
As I noted in this TV interview, that last thing a parasite should want is to kill its host animal. This is why leftists are making a big mistake by over-taxing, over-spending, and over-regulating. Simply stated, if they want to live as moochers, they need to make…