by Dan Mitchell | Oct 27, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
When I gave speeches during Obama’s time in office, especially to audiences with a lot of Republicans, I sometimes asked a rhetorical question about whether they approved of presidents who increased spending, bailed out big companies, expanded the power of the...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 19, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
I’ve written several times that the left wants big tax hikes on poor and middle-class taxpayers. Simply stated, that’s the only way they can finance a European-sized welfare state. Some of them even admit they want to pillage ordinary taxpayers. The editors at the New...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 18, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs
A few days ago, using several methodologies, I calculated how fast government spending increased during the presidencies of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. One of my big...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 9, 2017 | Bailouts, Big Government, Blogs
Puerto Rico is getting lots of attention because Hurricane Maria caused a tremendous amount of economic damage. That leads to an important discussion about the role of government – particularly the federal government – when there is a natural disaster (and a secondary...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 20, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
I argued last year that leftists should be nice to rich people because upper-income taxpayers finance the vast majority of the American welfare state according to government data. Needless to say, my comment about being “nice” was somewhat sarcastic. But I was making...