I tangle with my old nemesis Christian Weller, one of the statists at the Center against American Progress, in a debate on whether the corporate tax rate should be reduced. I was somewhat amused that Christian defended the current system because companies currently are earning profits. Maybe I’ll eventually convince him to be a capitalist. […]

Two things struck me about this debate. First, the guy from the Center for American Progress was either clueless or dishonest about double taxation. Second, nobody seems to understand that balancing the budget is a simple matter of restraining the growth of government spending. I want deep cuts, but that’s not even necessary.

I think I did okay in this debate, but my opponent wanted me to defend Bush and didn’t seem to get my point that I don’t like big-spending interventionists, regardless of whether they have a D or R after their names.

Bill Frezza of Adams Capital Management writes at RealClearMarkets to debunk claims that the current deficit is due to a lack of tax revenue, rather than excessive spending.  Using IRS data, he shows how revenues from the rich – as well as the effective tax rate on the rich – rose during the Bush years. So […]

Appearing on Fox Business News, I summarize the many reasons why the Bush-Paulson-Obama-Geithner TARP bailout was – and still is – bad policy. I’m sure I have plenty of flaws, but at least I am philosophically consistent. Here’s what I said about the issue more than 18 months ago. The core message is the same (though I […]

Appearing on MSNBC, I explain why Reagan’s approach helped America. But I also warn that Obama is making America more like France. For inexplicable reasons, some people have been giving me a hard time about my very snazzy jacket.

When you’re a government bureaucrat, it’s never a bad time to interrupt people with real jobs, doing real work, in order to apply pointless rules.  Rather than deploying all resources to address the oil spill in the Gulf, the Coast Guard has been holding hostage the clean-up boats in order to do “inspections.” Governor Jindal […]

This article from the Weekly Standard almost makes me want to cry with frustration. It shows how the healthcare system generally would function in the absence of government-imposed distortions such as Medicare, Medicaid, and (especially!) the tax loophole for employer-provided insurance. Sadly, Obamacare will push the system even further in the wrong direction. And when […]

I gave a speech in Hungary about two weeks ago and now the government has announced a big step in the direction of better fiscal policy. According to Reuters, “Hungary’s new government plans to introduce a flat personal income tax of 16 percent from 2011, as well as a 15 percent cut in public sector […]

I have a question for my friends who support a national sales tax. First, some background. Beginning with the defeat of Woody Jenkins in his Louisiana Senate race back in the 1990s, various versions of the national sales tax have caused political headaches for GOP candidates. Even candidates from conservative states, such as Sen. DeMint […]