In his Townhall column, John Stossel cites my Cato colleague Jerry Taylor as he explains that nuclear energy may not be viable without government subsidies. President Obama recently announced $8 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear power plants. I smiled when I…
Daily Analysis
In Chicago the Dead Vote, in New York They Pay Taxes.
The New York City NBC affiliate reported this week that twenty six professional tax preparers were wanted or arrested on tax fraud charges as the result of a recent crackdown. Some of the preparers allegedly used the names of dead people to collect fraudulent…
Washington Prospers While America Suffers.
Unemployment in the heartland may be high and incomes may be stagnating in most of the nation, but Washington, DC, continues to be an oasis of prosperity as more of the nation’s resources get consumed by government. The lastest evidence comes from the Washington…
Taxpayers vs. Bureaucrats, Part XXII.
Isn’t it nice that mere taxpayers, who overwhelmingly ride in the steerage section, are paying for bureaucrats to go on first-class and business-class junkets around the world? It’s “only” a $13-billion burden, so let’s not hear any…
Government Thuggery and Healthcare.
Congressman Henry Waxman is one of the most odious statists in a town dominated by people who love big government. From his perch as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, this career politician played a big role in concocting Obamacare – including the…
Government Corruption Watch, Part III.
George Orwell’s Animal Farm is famous for showing how the revolutionary zeal of the animals begins to wane after they take over the farm and the slogan “All animals are equal” is eventually amended by adding “But some animals are more equal…
Immigration and the Welfare State.
My previous post dealing with whether citizenship should be automatic for babies born to illegals generated a lot of commentary, so it is with some trepidation that I wade back into the issue. But the Wall Street Journal column excerpted below seems to strike exactly…
Great Moments in Government Waste and Hypocrisy.
I shudder to think how many American politicians and bureaucrats squandered our tax dollars by attending the enivornmental boondoggle in Copenhagen last December, but the behavior of one EPA official is a perfect illustration of how the political elite have no…
Great Moments in International Bureaucracy.
I don’t know what’s more laughable, the fact that some EU bureaucracy is creating an 80-minute poem (with dancing, no less), or that the “low-grade bank clerk” who masquerades as the European Council President is going to publish a a book of…
Taxing the Rich Won't Raise Revenue – but Will Hurt the Economy.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, my Cato Institute colleague Alan Reynolds offers a simple economics lesson about pitfalls of class-warfare tax policy: …the evidence is clear that when marginal tax rates go up, the amount of reported incomes goes down….