by Dan Mitchell | Sep 5, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy
President Trump has proposed a one-year pay freeze for federal bureaucrats, which has reinvigorated the debate over whether compensation levels for the civil service are too lavish. The Washington Post opines this is nothing but “government bashing,” but...
by Dan Mitchell | May 31, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy
When I first created the Bureaucrat Hall of Fame, I confess that my standards were a bit slack. I awarded membership to government workers that are grossly overpaid (see here and here, for instance), but otherwise didn’t really do anything special to merit awards. In...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 16, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, States
Politicians have a giant incentive to provide lavish benefits to interest groups that then recycle some of the loot back to elected officials in the form of campaign contributions. But the real key to the scam is that the bill gets imposed on future generations. The...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 26, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy
I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories. When people ask me whether there is some sinister, behind-the-scenes cabal running Washington, I tell them that petty corruption, self-interest, and “public choice” are much better explanations for the nonsensical policies being...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 18, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy, Government Waste
Time for a confession. I routinely mock bureaucrats, but I don’t really think they are any worse than other people. Indeed, I have plenty of friends and acquaintances who work for various levels of government and they are fundamentally decent people. The real problem...
