When I think about taxes, my first instinct is to rip up the corrupt internal revenue code and implement a simple and fair flat tax. When I think about Social Security, my first instinct is to copy dozens of other nations and implement personal retirement accounts….
Daily Analysis
Sequestration Does Not Endanger America’s National Security
The left wanted to get one thing from the Supercommittee, and that was to seduce gullible Republicans into a 1990-style tax increase deal in order to enable bigger government. But I was pleasantly surprised when GOPers failed to surrender, which means that taxpayers…
Supercommittee Fight May Tell Us Whether the GOP Is Beyond Salvage
Some people have asked why I’m so agitated about the possibility that Republicans may acquiesce to tax increases as part of the Supercommittee negotiations. Rather than get into a lengthy discourse about the proper role of the federal government or an analysis of how…
What Matters More to Republicans, Defending Taxpayers or Expanding Government?
Yesterday, I unloaded on supposed conservatives who are toying with a tax increase to enable more government spending. Why would they take that route in the “Supercommittee” deliberations, I wondered, when they can deliver a guaranteed victory for taxpayers by holding…
Some “Conservative” Members of the Stupid Party Push for Tax Increases to Enable Bigger Government
What would you do if you saw somebody standing at the top of a skyscraper, about to jump? Would you avert your eyes in horror? Would you watch in dismay as they plummeted to the ground? These are similar to the thoughts that are going through my mind as I watch…
Five Lessons for America from the European Fiscal Crisis
I’ve written about the fiscal implosion in Europe and warned that America faces the same fate if we don’t reform poorly designed entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. But this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, narrated by an Italian…
Alan Blinder’s Accidental Case for the Flat Tax
Alan Blinder has a distinguished resume. He’s a professor at Princeton and he served as Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve. So I was interested to see he authored an attack on the flat tax – and I was happy after I read his column. Why? Well, because his arguments…
A Painful Example of Obamacare’s Tax Complexity
As this image illustrates, the internal revenue code is a nightmare of complexity. And this chart shows how Obamacare is turning the health care system into a Byzantine nightmare. So what happens when you mix bad tax policy and bad health care policy? Well, you get…
The Tobin Tax on Financial Transactions Would Be Bad for Investment, Bad for Competitiveness
I’m periodically asked about proposals to impose “small” taxes on transactions. There are a couple of versions of this idea. In some cases, such proposals are designed to tax every economic transaction and supposedly generate enough money to replace all other taxes….
Per Dollar Spent, OECD Subsidies May Be the Most Destructively Wasteful Part of the Federal Budget
I’m not a fan of international bureaucracies. I’ve criticized the United Nations for wanting global taxes. I’ve condemned the International Monetary Fund for promoting bigger government. I’ve even excoriated the largely unknown Basel Committee on Banking Supervision…