by Dan Mitchell | Feb 26, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Health Care, Welfare and Entitlements
The United States is going to become another Greece, and it’s largely because of poorly designed entitlement programs. As the old saying goes, demography is destiny. Let’s look at just one piece of that puzzle. James Capretta of the American Enterprise Institute has a...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 30, 2016 | Blogs, Economics
At the risk of sounding like a broken record (or like Donald Sutherland in Animal House), I’m going to repeat myself for the umpteenth time and state that the United States has a big long-run problem. To be specific, the burden of government spending will inexorably...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 11, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
The burden of government spending is already excessive. But the numbers will get worse with the passage of time if policy is left on autopilot. The main culprits are the so-called mandatory programs. Entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps,...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 21, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve been accused of making supposedly inconsistent arguments against Hillary Clinton. Make up your mind, these critics say. Is she corrupt or is she a doctrinaire leftist? I always respond with the simple observation that she’s both. Not that this should come as a...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 26, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
The Social Security Administration has released the 2016 Trustees Report, which shines a spotlight on the overall fiscal condition of the program. In previous years (2012, 2013, 2014), I’ve used this opportunity to play Paul Revere. But instead of warning that the...
