by Dan Mitchell | Mar 26, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Waste, Welfare and Entitlements
As shown by this graphic, why are so many people in Maine taking advantage of the food stamp program? As shown by this map, why does Oregon have such a high level of food stamp dependency? These are just rhetorical questions since I don’t have the answers. But if we...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 30, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Waste
I’ve periodically cited the great 19th-century French economist, Frederic Bastiat, for his very wise words about the importance of looking at both the seen and the unseen when analyzing public policy. Those that fail to consider secondary or indirect effects of...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 23, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Government Waste
It’s unfortunate that Senator Tom Coburn is retiring. He hasn’t been perfect, but nobody can question is commitment to limited government. He’s been a rare voice in Washington against wasteful spending. And he’s going out with a bang, having just released the 2014...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 19, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
The International Monetary Fund isn’t my least-favorite international bureaucracy. That special honor belongs to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, largely because of its efforts to undermine tax competition and protect the interests of the...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 18, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy, Health Care
Years ago, I shared a very funny poster that suggests that more government is hardly ever the right answer to any question. Yet in Washington, the standard response to any screwup by government is to make government even bigger. Sort of Mitchell’s Law on steroids. And...