by Dan Mitchell | Apr 8, 2026 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I constantly remind people that government spending is the most important fiscal variable, not deficits/debt. After all, it is government spending that drains resources from the productive sector of the economy, regardless of whether it is financed...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 6, 2026 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Thanks to demographic change and poorly designed entitlement programs (primarily Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but also food stamps and other welfare programs), the United States is stumbling toward a grim fiscal future. Let’s...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 30, 2026 | Blogs, States, Tax Competition, Taxation
We know that people have been migrating from high-tax states to low-tax states. Well, when people move, they take their money with them. Building on the evidence in Part I and Part II of this series, let’s begin today’s column by sharing a chart showing...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 17, 2026 | Blogs, Government Spending
Part I of this series focused on the horrible economic conditions that led to Javier Milei’s election in late 2023. For Part II, let’s start with this segment from an interview I did last week while in Slovenia. In less than two minutes, I tried to summarize Milei’s...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 12, 2026 | Blogs, Europe, Taxation
I frequently make the point that America’s tax system is more progressive than European tax systems. But not because the United States imposes higher tax rates on upper-income households. Instead, the big difference is that lower-income...
