by Dan Mitchell | Sep 8, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Back in 2013, my colleagues at the Cato Institute, Michael Tanner and Charles Hughes, released a study looking at the value of welfare programs in various states. The most shocking finding was that the overall package of welfare benefits was greater than the median...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 22, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
At the risk of oversimplifying, there are two types of statists. The first type is generally insincere and simply views bigger government and increased dependency as a strategy to obtain and preserve political power. Most inside-the-beltway leftists in Washington are...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 8, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
For both policy reasons and narcissism, I wish the most popular item ever posted on International Liberty was Mitchell’s Golden Rule. But that guide to sensible fiscal policy isn’t even in the top 70. Instead, my most-read post is a set of cartoons showing how the...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 6, 2015 | Blogs, Economics
I’ve written over and over again that the federal government’s so-called War on Poverty has been a disaster. It’s been bad news for taxpayers, of course, but it’s also been bad news for poor people since they get trapped in dependency. So what’s the alternative? Well,...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 4, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Based on a new report from the Congressional Budget Office, I wrote two weeks ago about America’s dismal long-run fiscal outlook. Simply stated, we face a Greek-style fiscal future because of changing demographics and poorly designed entitlement programs. But I was...
