I mentioned the other day a claim from CEI that regulatory burdens cost the economy nearly $2 trillion in 2008. The Phoenix Center also recently produced a policy bulletin examining the costs of the regulatory state (Hat-tip: Big Government). In quantifying the relationship between government spending and economic growth based upon 50 years of data, […]
read more...Maybe Obama’s not so bad on Second Amendment issues. His Administration has contracted with the folks at Ruger to produce a special pistol in honor of the government workforce. This new gun will be called “The Bureaucracy Special.” The only downside is that it doesn’t work and you can’t fire it.
read more...The Department of Housing and Urban Development is trying hard to win the “Bureaucracy of the Year Award,” and they have a new motto. But I think the bureaucrats at HUD are cheating. I’m almost sure I saw one of these signs during my last visit to the DMV, though I confess I started hallucinating […]
read more...I’m not a big fan of the IRS, but usually I blame politicians for America’s corrupt, unfair, and punitive tax system. Sometimes, though, the tax bureaucrats run amok and earn their reputation as America’s most despised bureaucracy. Here’s an example. Earlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service proposed a regulation that would force American banks […]
read more...Eli Lehrer of the Heartland Institute has an article in the Weekly Standard claiming that underfunded pension plans are not the problem with state budgets. This paragraph is a good summary of his article. In the end, many states facing very large current budget gaps—New York, Florida, Texas, and Wisconsin among them—have pension systems that […]
read more...A buddy from Monaco was at a different conference in the same hotel in Switzerland, and he sent me this great humor from David Letterman. Here are the top 10 ways to tell if you are a bureaucrat. 10.) You take a week off to protest in Wisconsin and your office runs better. 9.) On […]
read more...Kudos to Governor Walker of Wisconsin. Republicans rarely have the intelligence or the fortitude to win battles that reduce the burden of government, but it appears that he is on the verge of prevailing in his effort to limit special privileges for government workers. Fugitive Democrats from the State Senate apparently are giving up on […]
read more...My New Year’s Resolution was to stop making fun of the Transportation Security Administration. Not because I changed my mind about the bureaucracy and its level of (in)competence, but rather because I felt as if I was taking candy from a baby. Kicking the TSA is just too easy. But I can’t resist low-hanging fruit. […]
read more...The showdown in Wisconsin has generated competing claims about whether state and local government bureaucrats are paid too much or paid too little compared to their private sector counterparts. The data on total compensation clearly show a big advantage for state and local bureaucrats, largely because of lavish benefits (which is the problem that Governor […]
read more...This is really remarkable. We’re supposed to go through porno strip machines at the airport so the bureaucrats can detect firearms. Yet the Keystone Cops at the TSA in Dallas failed when an undercover agent tested their awareness by hiding a gun in her undergarments. They didn’t just fail. They. Failed. Every. Single. Time. Check […]
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