by Dan Mitchell | Dec 15, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Adopting tax reform (even a watered-down version of tax reform) is not easy. Some critics say it will deprive the federal government of too much money (a strange argument since it will be a net tax increase starting in 2027). Some critics say it will make it more...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 11, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
Whenever I discuss education policy with one of my leftist friends, it usually follows the same script. They’ll ask whether I want good education for kids. I’ll say yes. They’ll then say we should devote more money to government schools. I then show them this powerful...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 10, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Both the House and Senate have approved reasonably good tax reform plans. Lawmakers are now in a “conference committee” to iron out the differences between the two bills so that a consensus package can be a approved and sent to the White House for the President’s...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 4, 2017 | Blogs, Economics
The late Mancur Olsen was a very accomplished academic economist who described the unfortunate tendency of vote-seeking governments to behave like “stationary bandits,” seeking to extract the maximum amount of money from taxpayers. I’m not nearly as sophisticated, so...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 3, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
As part of yesterday’s column about the comparatively tiny – and temporary – tax cut in the Republican tax reform plan, I quoted a leftist columnist for US News & World Report, who argued that there should be a big tax increase (including a big tax hike on...
