by Dan Mitchell | May 23, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
It’s both amusing and frustrating to observe the reaction to President Trump’s budget. I’m amused that it is generating wild-eyed hysterics from interest groups who want us to believe the world is about to end. But I’m frustrated because I’m reminded of the terribly...
by Dan Mitchell | May 22, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
When President Trump released his so-called “skinny budget” back in March (dealing with the parts of Leviathan that are annually appropriated), I applauded several of the specific recommendations. Shutting down the wasteful National Endowment for the Arts. Defunding...
by Dan Mitchell | May 17, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve, Taxation
As far as I’m concerned, no sentient human being could look at what happened in the United States in the 1980s and not agree that high tax rates on upper-income taxpayers are foolish and self-destructive. Not only did the economy grow faster after Reagan lowered...
by Dan Mitchell | May 12, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
As I’ve written before, our fight to restrain the size and scope of government will be severely hamstrung – perhaps even mortally wounded – if the crowd in Washington ever succeeds in getting a value-added tax as a new source of revenue. This is why many statists are...
by Dan Mitchell | May 3, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Tax Competition, Taxation
Seven years ago, I wrote about the “Butterfield Effect,” which is a term used to mock clueless journalists. A former reporter for the New York Times, Fox Butterfield, became a bit of a laughingstock in the 1990s for publishing a series of articles addressing the...
