by Dan Mitchell | Nov 15, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
During the 2016 presidential campaign, I was very critical of Donald Trump’s proposal to expand the entitlement state with a new program for paid parental leave, just as I was very critical of a similar proposal from Hillary Clinton. Neither candidate offered much...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 7, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
The United States has a bankrupt Social Security system. According to the most recent Trustees Report, the cash-flow deficit is approaching $44 trillion. And that’s after adjusting for inflation. Even by DC standards of profligacy, that’s a big number. Yet all that...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 15, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
If you did man-on-the-street interviews across America and asked people about Social Security, I suspect most of them would have some degree of understanding about the program’s looming fiscal crisis. Since they’re not policy wonks, they presumably wouldn’t know the...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 28, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
I wrote yesterday about the continuing success of Switzerland’s spending cap. Before voters changed the Swiss constitution, overall expenditures were growing by an average of 4.6 percent annually. Ever since the “debt brake” took effect, though, government spending...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 6, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Writing a column every day can sometimes be a challenge, in part because of logistics (I have to travel a lot, which can make things complicated), but also because I want to make sure I’m sharing interesting and relevant information. My task, however, is very easy on...