by Dan Mitchell | Nov 26, 2017 | Blogs, Taxation
Since Republicans screwed up Obamacare repeal and haven’t even tried to impose spending restraint, I was rather pessimistic about tax reform earlier this year. Given my dour attitude, I thought the best-possible outcome was nothing more than a reduction in the...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 17, 2017 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
Whenever I debate my left-wing friends on tax policy, they routinely assert that taxes don’t matter. They argue that we don’t have to worry about the Laffer Curve because high tax rates don’t discourage taxable income. They argue that we don’t have to worry about...
by Dan Mitchell | May 28, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Health Care
In the Dirty Harry movies, one of Clint Eastwood’s famous lines is “Go ahead, make my day.” I’m tempted to say the same thing when I read about politicians proposing economically destructive policies. Indeed, I sometimes even relish the opportunity. I endorsed...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 14, 2016 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
As part of her collection of class-warfare tax proposals, Hillary Clinton wants a big increase in the death tax. This is very bad tax policy. In a good system, there shouldn’t be any double taxation of income that is saved and invested,especially since that approach...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 26, 2016 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
What’s the worst possible tax hike, the one that would do the most economic damage? Raising income tax rates is never a good idea, and there’s powerful evidence from the 1980s about how upper-income taxpayers have considerable ability to change their behavior in...
