The food stamp program seems to be a breeding ground of waste, fraud, and abuse. Some of the horror stories I’ve shared include: Using food stamps to buy luxury coffee at Starbucks. Buying steaks and lobster with food stamps. The Obama Administration rewarding states…
Cigarette butt, to be more specific. All over the world, governments impose draconian taxes on tobacco, and then they wind up surprised that projected revenues don’t materialize. We’ve seen this in Bulgaria and Romania, and we’ve seen this Laffer Curve effect in…
It doesn’t create a lot of confidence in Europe that tiny little Cyprus, with a GDP less than Vermont, is now causing immense turmoil. Though to be more accurate, events in Cyprus aren’t causing turmoil as much as they’re causing people to examine both government…
Regular readers know that I’m a big advocate of the Laffer Curve, which is the common-sense notion that higher tax rates will cause people to change their behavior in ways that reduce taxable income. But that doesn’t mean “all tax cuts pay for themselves.” Yes, that…
It can be very frustrating to work at the Cato Institute and fight for small government. Consider what’s happened the past couple of days. Congressman Paul Ryan introduces a budget and I dig through the numbers with a sense of disappointment because government…
I wrote about the Ryan budget two days ago, praising it for complying with Mitchell’s Golden Rule and reforming Medicare and Medicaid. But I believe in being honest and nonpartisan, so I also groused that it wasn’t as good as the 2011 and 2012 versions. Now it’s time…
As a general rule, it’s not right to take pleasure at the misfortune of others. But I think we’re allowed an exception to that Schadenfreude rule when the “others” are greedy politicians pursuing spiteful policies. We want the political elite to suffer misfortune…
Sigh. Even when they’re sort of doing the right thing, Republicans are incapable of using the right argument. Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, has unveiled his proposed budget and he and other Republicans are bragging that the plan will balance the…
As part of my “Question of the Week” series, I had to decide which department of the federal government was most deserving of abolition. With a target-rich environment of waste, fraud, and abuse in Washington, that wasn’t an easy question to answer. But I decided to…
I believe in the First Amendment, so I would never support legislation to restrict political speech or curtail the ability of people to petition the government. That being said, I despise the corrupt Washington game of obtaining unearned wealth thanks to the sleazy…