by Dan Mitchell | Dec 19, 2014 | Blogs, Economics, States
I’m a big fan of federalism for both policy and political reasons. Returning programs to the states is the best way of dealing with counterproductive income-redistribution policies such as welfare, Medicaid, and food stamps. Federalism is also the right way of...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 18, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
Like a lot of libertarians and small-government conservatives, I’m prone to pessimism. How can you be cheerful, after all, when you look at what’s been happening in our lifetimes. New entitlement programs, adopted by politicians from all parties, are further adding to...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 17, 2014 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Genuine tax reform would be the second-best fiscal policy reform to boost economic growth.* With a simple and fair tax system, we could get rid of high tax rates that penalize productive behavior. We could eliminate the double taxation that discourages saving and...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 14, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian
I don’t know if this is a good personality trait or a character flaw, but it always brings a big smile to my face when a leftist tries to argue for bigger government but inadvertently makes an argument in favor of smaller government. Sort of like scoring a goal...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 10, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
While there are plenty of reasons to dislike the World Bank, United Nations, and (especially) the International Monetary Fund, the worst international bureaucracy on a per-dollar spent basis has to be the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and...
