From Employment to Savings, Bad Government Policy Is Undermining the U.S. Economy

by Dan Mitchell | Feb 4, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics

First, some good news. The United States is in much better shape than most other developed nations, particularly if you look at broad measures of prosperity and living standards. And our economy is growing and the private sector is creating jobs. That’s the...

Why GDP Data Shouldn’t Be Interpreted in Ways That Support Keynesian Spending

by Dan Mitchell | Jan 31, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian

Fighting against statism in Washington is a lot like trying to swim upstream. It seems that everything (how to measure spending cuts, how to estimate tax revenue, etc) is rigged to make your job harder. A timely example is the way the way government puts together data...

Thanks to the Welfare Hammock, Here’s another Horror Story about Deadbeats Sponging Off British Taxpayers

by Dan Mitchell | Jan 29, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements

Here are some odious details from the UK-based Sun. Danny Creamer, 21, and Gina Allan, 18, spend each day watching their 47in flatscreen TV and smoking 40 cigarettes between them in their comfy two-bedroom flat. It is all funded by the taxpayer, yet the couple say...

The Sequester May Not Be “Fair,” but It’s Real and It Would Slow the Growth of Government

by Dan Mitchell | Jan 28, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending

Much to the horror of various interest groups, it appears that there will be a “sequester” on March 1. This means an automatic reduction in spending authority for selected programs (interest payments are exempt, as are most entitlement outlays). Just about everybody...

Which Department of the Federal Government Should Be the First to Be Abolished?

by Dan Mitchell | Jan 27, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Government Waste

A reader sent an email to ask “Which federal department should be abolished first?” I guess this is what is meant when people talk about a target-rich environment. We have an abundance of candidates, including the Department of Education, Department of Agriculture,...