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 | Jul 14, 2018 | Blogs, States, Taxation
The best budget rule in the United States is Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Known as TABOR, this provision in the state’s constitution says revenues can’t grow faster than population plus inflation. Any revenue greater than that amount must be returned to...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 6, 2018 | Blogs, Taxation
Guided by the principles of a simple and fair flat tax, I’ve been toiling for decades in the vineyard of tax reform. At the risk of mixing my metaphors, I usually feel like Don Quixote, engaged in a futile quest. Convincing politicians to reduce their power is not an...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 5, 2018 | Blogs, Taxation
Last week, I shared very grim data, going all the way back to 1880, on the growth of the welfare state. I even claimed that the accompanying graph was the “western world’s most depressing chart” because it showed the dramatic increase in the burden of government...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 2, 2018 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
New Jersey is a fiscal disaster area. It’s in last place in the Tax Foundation’s index that measures a state’s business tax climate. It’s tied for last place in the Mercatus Center’s ranking of state fiscal conditions. And it ranks in the bottom-10 in measures...