by Dan Mitchell | Feb 7, 2026 | Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
I wrote recently about how government handouts are creating dependency (perhaps deliberately) for low-income Americans, and I elaborated on this topic for Austin Peterson’s show. The real issue in this debate, as discussed in my two-part series...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 2, 2026 | Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
Today’s column features a very depressing chart from a report published last year by the Congressional Budget Office and it shows that poor people now get about three-fourths of their “income” from handouts. That’s far different from the data in 1979, when poor people...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 13, 2025 | Blogs, Health Care
Back in 2017, I unveiled the 2nd Theorem of government, which observed that it is much easier to stop a new program than to repeal an existing program. The example I used was Obamacare. Republicans had spent years arguing that the law was bad fiscal...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 13, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
A few years ago, advocates of a “basic income” seemed to have a lot of momentum on their side. Nations were holding referendums, presidential candidates were embracing the concept, and even some libertarians were saying nice things about the idea. Being a curmudgeon...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 25, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
Last decade, three things made me optimistic about the United Kingdom. A lengthy period of spending restraint from 2010-2019. Voters chose in 2016 to escape the European Union. Boris Johnson was elected to deliver Brexit in 2019. Sadly, I was hopelessly naive. I...
