Obama’s Policies Are Bad News for Black America

by Dan Mitchell | Jul 26, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics

I don’t have my finger on the pulse of black America, and I don’t pretend to understand the emotional and symbolic value of a black President to the African-American community. But I do know that the big-government policies of the Obama Administration have not been...

Republicans Should Copy the Bill Clinton Approach on Federal Spending

by Dan Mitchell | Jul 25, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending

I’ve pointed out on several occasions that the burden of federal spending fell significantly during the Clinton years. Indeed, if we did nothing other than bring federal spending back down to 18.2 percent of GDP (where it was when Clinton left office), we’d have a...

Bush Was Not a Conservative

by Dan Mitchell | Mar 18, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending

There’s an interesting debate in the blogosphere about whether President George W. Bush was a conservative (here’s a good summary of the discussion, along with lots of links, though I especially like this analysis since it cites my work.). I’ve already explained that...

Spending Restraint Works: Examples from Around the World

by Dan Mitchell | Feb 22, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending

America faces a fiscal crisis. The burden of federal spending has doubled during the Bush-Obama years, a $2 trillion increase in just 10 years. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Because of demographic changes and poorly designed entitlement programs,...

Compared to the Reagan Era, the Bush-Obama Years Have Been a Fiscal Nightmare

by Dan Mitchell | Feb 21, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending

Since February is the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth and I still haven’t gotten over my man-crush on the Gipper, I figured it would be interesting to look at Reagan’s fiscal record, particularly to see whether he was successful in restraining the growth of...