I testified earlier today before the Joint Economic Committee about budget process reform. As part of the Q&A session after the testimony, one of the Democratic members made a big deal about the fact that federal tax revenues today are “only” consuming about 15 percent of GDP. And since the long-run average is about 18 […]

I testified before the House Ways & Means Committee earlier today. As always, my trip inside the belly of the beast was an interesting adventure. The tax-writing committee was holding a hearing on the value-added tax. I was on a panel with five other witnesses, and all of the other people testifying were sympathetic to […]

Kudos to the Concerned Women for America, not only for this clever video, but also for putting the focus on the burden of government spending rather than the symptom of too much red ink.

The on-again, off-again “Gang of Six” has come back on the scene and is offering a “Bipartisan Plan to Reduce Our Nation’s Deficits.” The proposal is quite similar to the one put forth by the President’s Simpson-Bowles Commission, which isn’t too surprising since some of the same people are involved. At this stage, all I’ve […]

Here’s a new video from the Cato Institute, featuring my pearls of wisdom, along with equally sage commentary from my colleague Chris Edwards. We make two simple points. First, America faces a Greek-style fiscal crisis if we leave the federal budget on autopilot (actually, it will be worse since we won’t get a bailout from […]

The Beacon Hill Institute in Massachusetts has just released a very good – but very depressing study. The research finds that costs have jumped under Romneycare, but that’s not surprising. After all, politicians always underestimate the cost of new entitlements. The important revelation in this new research is the degree to which the system has […]

Republicans say (and do) lots of stupid things, but the current fiscal debate has me focused on two specific statements. Both get me very agitated. Indeed, I’m so irritated that all Republican politicians should be fitted with shock collars and then zapped when they utter either one of these statements. Dumb Remark #1: “We shouldn’t […]

At his press conference today, President Obama repeatedly said that a “balanced approach” is needed to deal with the fiscal situation. The White House has obviously poll-tested and focus-grouped that phrase. But just because it’s gimmicky, that doesn’t mean balance is a bad idea. So I’ve decided to take the President’s challenge. I want to […]

The United States has been on a decade-long spending binge. Thanks to the profligate policies of both Bush and Obama, the burden of federal spending has climbed to about 25 percent of economic output, up from 18.2 percent of GDP when Bill Clinton left office. The political class tells us that more government is good […]

One of the first things I learned when coming to Washington is that there is pervasive institutional dishonesty. A classic example is the way politicians have rigged the system so a “spending cut” takes place if the budget grows by, say, 6 percent instead of 8 percent. This is sort of like claiming your diet […]