by Dan Mitchell | Jan 6, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
As I explained in this set of videos, we desperately need to reform entitlement programs. But not in the wrong way, with price fixing and means testing. Good reform means personal retirement accounts for Social Security. It means vouchers for Medicare. And it...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 4, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, VAT
My Iowa caucus predictions from yesterday were hopelessly wrong, probably because I was picking with my heart rather than my head. As I noted a couple of weeks ago, Mitt Romney’s openness to a value-added tax makes him a dangerously flawed candidate, and I hoped Iowa...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 3, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
Late last year, Spanish voters kicked out a socialist government and elected a new government led by the supposedly conservative People’s Party. Is that translating into smaller government and more freedom? Doesn’t look that way. It seems that Spanish right-of-center...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 30, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
Last year, I came up with a saying that “Bad Government Policy Begets More Bad Government Policy” and labeled it “Mitchell’s Law” during a bout of narcissism. There are lots of examples of this phenomenon, such as the misguided War on Drugs being a precursor to...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 29, 2011 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs
Kevin Williamson of National Review is always worth reading, whether he’s kicking Paul Krugman’s behind in a discussion about the Texas economy, explaining supply-side economics, or even when he’s writing misguided things about taxation. But I’m tempted to say that...