The Wall Street Journal has an excellent editorial this morning on the obscure – but critically important – issue of measuring what happens to tax revenue in response to changes in tax policy. This is sometimes known as the dynamic scoring vs static scoring debate and…
Daily Analysis
Taxpayers vs. Bureaucrats, Part XXXVI
Even I am shocked about how politicians and bureaucrats are bilking the poor people of Bell, California. I wish I had this example reported by Bloomberg for my video on overpaid bureaucrats, but mostly I hope that taxpayers rise up in revolt against the way the…
Good News from Romania
Redistributionists hate the flat tax, and this sentiment is widely shared by other statists. These proponents of big government want the tax system to to punish success and generate loot that can be used to buy votes (though they don’t seem to understand that if they…
Abortion, Third-Party Payer, and the Cost of Health Care
A major problem with America’s healthcare system, both before and after Obamacare, is the fact that consumers very rarely spend their own money when obtaining healthcare. Known as third-party payer, this problem exists in part because government directly finances…
Wherein I Agree With The Statists: Don't Let BP Win
Iain Murray writes at the Washington Examiner that advocacy groups Change.org and the Alliance for Climate Protection are arguing – in an email entitled, “Don’t Let BP Win!” – that “Stalling climate and energy legislation would be a big win for oil…
For Heaven’s Sake, America Is Not One of the World’s 17 Most-Authoritarian Nations
A writer for the Atlantic (or perhaps an editor in charge of headlines) is so clueless about world affairs that he lists America as one of the world’s most-authoritarian nations. As someone who is constantly criticizing government, I certainly have no objection to…
Federally-Funded Job-Training Programs Don’t Work
Kudos to the New York Times for actually looking at the evidence and publishing a story exposing the costly failure of job-training programs financed by the federal government. I also couldn’t help but note that the Obama Administration is claiming that the programs…
Washington vs. America
The fact that government is growing is not big news. The fact that bureaucrats are overpaid is hardly a big revelation. But it is interesting that a DC-based newspaper like Politico has a story about how Washington is prospering while the rest of the country is…
The Dodd-Frank Bailout Bill and the Looming Red-Tape Nightmare
The Wall Street Journal opines about the number of new regulations that will be generated by the so-called financial reform legislation that has been approved by Congress. The big winners will by lawyers, the federal bureaucracy, and politicians. The big losers will…
Are Reporters for the New York Times Biased or Stupid?
The Obama Administration has decided to mandate that insurance companies provide dozens of tests to consumers at no charge. Any person with an IQ that is above room temperature understands, of course, that this doesn’t mean there is no cost for the tests. It just…