Dan Mitchell recently appeared on MSNBC to explain why we should not be surprised to learn that more than $9 million dollars in home buyer tax credits were given to prison inmates who were clearly not new home owners. This kind of waste is to be expected when…
Daily Analysis
Faith in Government Regulators is Misplaced
Shakespeare would likely describe the latest major legislation winding its way through Congress as a piece of legislation crafted by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Rather than address the systemic distortions created by prior government policies,…
A Bigger Government Means a Less Prosperous Economy
A new study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University examines some of the academic research about the relationship between government spending and economic performance. Reinforcing many of the points I made in my theory and evidence videos, the GMU study…
Biden Told to "Just Lower Our Taxes"
Campaigning in Wisconsin, Vice President Biden met his match in a local small business owner. It doesn’t have quite the snappy ring of “Joe the Plumber,” but it will do. Earlier today Joe Biden was in Wisconsin, trying to help Russ Feingold salvage…
Congressman Barton, BP, Obama, and the Oil Spill
I was interviewed by CNN about the issues relating to Congressman Barton’s apology to BP. The network only used one of my quotes from the interview, and I was happy to see that I was not taken out of context (always a danger when you are taped in advance). To augment…
Canadian Boondoggles and Russia Is More Capitalist than the U.S. (Again)
The G-20 gab-fest is in Canada this weekend, but Canadian taxpayers are definitely not winners. In a display of waste that might even embarrass a French politician, the Canadian government somehow is going to squander $1 billion hosting the event. I can’t even…
The Tax Man Wants His Cut
As if the residents of the Gulf Coast haven’t had it hard enough, the IRS is moving in to make sure they get their cut of any payouts from BP. These government bureaucrats even have the chutzpah to pretend that their actions are benevolent and beneficial on the…
Bureaucracy Run Amok
John Derbyshire of National Review has an interesting article on bureaucratic harassment of private business. He begins with a personal story of something that happened when he first came to the United States and was working at a food-preparation company: The first…
The G-20 Fiscal Fight: A Pox on Both Their Houses
Barack Obama and Angela Merkel are the two main characters in what is being portrayed as a fight between American “stimulus” and European “austerity” at the G-20 summit meeting in Canada. My immediate instinct is to cheer for the Europeans. After all, “austerity”…
DeMint Amendment Falls Short
DeMint’s amendment to prevent the current rate on capital gains and dividends from increasing to 20 percent at the end of the year fell well short on Wednesday. The only party defectors in the 40-57 defeat of the amendment were Democrat Ben Nelson, who supported the…