President Obama made a much-hyped pivot-to-the-economy speech yesterday in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I already explained, immediately following the speech, why his “grand bargain” on corporate taxes was not a good deal because of all the hidden taxes on new investment and international competitiveness. But I also had a chance to dissect the President’s overall track record […]

In his latest pivot to jobs and the economy, the President spoke earlier today in Tennessee. Much of his speech was tax-spend-and-regulate boilerplate, but he did repackage some of his ideas into a so-called grand bargain. He said he’s willing to cut the corporate tax rate in exchange for a bunch of new spending on […]

In an interview last week about Detroit’s bankruptcy, I explained that the city got in trouble because of growing dependency and an ever-rising burden of government spending. I also warned that the federal government faces the same challenge. Washington is in trouble mostly because of poorly designed entitlement programs rather than excessive compensation for a […]

There are lots of despicable people in Washington engaged in a lot of unsavory behavior, so it would be very difficult to get agreement if you asked regular people to select the most odious feature of the political class. Many people would probably choose corruption as the defining characteristic of Washington, and it would be […]

I suggested last year that President Obama adopt “my work here is done” as a campaign slogan. Admittedly, that was merely an excuse to share this rather amusing poster (and you can see the same hands-on-hips pose, by the way, in this clever Michael Ramirez cartoon). But I want to make a serious point. For […]

There are all sorts of ways to measure the burden of government spending. The most obvious approach is to look at the share of economic output consumed by the public sector. That’s what I did, for instance, when comparing fiscal policy in France and Switzerland. And it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyhow) […]

About two weeks ago, while making an important point about the Laffer Curve, here’s what I wrote about the fiscal disaster in Detroit. Detroit’s problems are the completely predictable result of excessive government. Just as statism explains the problems of Greece. And the problems of California. And the problems of Cyprus. And the problems of […]

I was on the road this afternoon when I caught on the radio Rush Limbaugh’s mention of a 2011 article by CF&P Chairman Dan Mitchell, in which he argued against the conventional wisdom that the 1995 government shut down harmed Republicans. This debate matters because the argument is frequently used to break down the will […]

Since its passage in 2010, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act has been delayed multiple times. Most recently the Treasury Department has pushed back 6 months the beginning of FATCA’s withholding penalty for noncompliant institutions, from January 1, 2014 to July 1, 2014. This newest delay is further proof that FATCA is poorly conceived and […]