With Tax Increases Looming, CBO Does About-Face and Frets about Deficits and Debt

by Dan Mitchell | Aug 1, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Health Care, Taxation

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the Congressional Budget Office follows a predictable pattern of endorsing policies that result in bigger government. During the debate about the so-called stimulus, for instance, CBO said more spending and higher deficits...

Peter Ferrara’s Too-Nice Attack on Phony Washington Budget Deals

by Dan Mitchell | Jul 30, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Peter Ferrara of the Institute for Policy Innovation explains that Washington budget deals don’t work because politicians never follow through on promised spending cuts. This is a very relevant argument since Obama’s so-called...

America’s Long-Term Fiscal Crisis: Worse than Greece?

by Dan Mitchell | Jul 27, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs

Professor Larry Kotlikoff has some very sobering analysis of America’s fiscal status. Instead of just looking at current deficits, he examines the “present value” of all future expenditures and revenues. Simply stated, America is in worse shape than Greece because of...

The Founding Fathers Would Be Even More Horrified by Today’s Spending

by Dan Mitchell | Jul 24, 2010 | Blogs, Government Spending

The Washington Examiner explains that America’s Founders would be aghast to see how modern politicians have accumulated $trillions of debt. That may be true, but the editorial is nonetheless unsatisfactory because it’s quite likely that the founders would be even more...

Jousting on MSNBC (with a libertarian host?)

by Dan Mitchell | Jul 15, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation

This MSNBC interview was halfway through before I got a chance to talk, so I was beginning to think I was a victim of bias, but then the host mentioned Greece degenerating like a scene out of Atlas Shrugged. I’m not sure what to think, but I did get in some good shots...