by Dan Mitchell | Jun 12, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian
Time for an update on the perpetual motion machine of Keynesian economics. We’ll start with the good news. The Treasury Department commissioned a study on the efficacy of the so-called stimulus spending that took place at the end of last decade. As discussed in this...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 5, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, States, Taxation
The federal income tax is corrosive and destructive. It’s almost as if a group of malicious people decided to deliberately design a system that imposes maximum damage while also allowing the most corruption. The economic damage is not only the result of high tax rates...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 3, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Illinois is a mess. Taxes and spending already are too high, and huge unfunded liabilities point to an even darker future. Simply stated, politicians and government employee unions have created an unholy alliance to extract as much money as possible from the state’s...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 2, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Neither involves nudity, but I’ve written about libertarian porn and poverty porn. To augment that list, my former colleague Brian Riedl, now with the Manhattan Institute, has produced some fiscal porn. Nothing sexual, so you can disregard this column if that’s your...
by Dan Mitchell | May 26, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
In this interview with Dana Loesch, I make several points about the Trump budget, including the need to reform means-tested entitlements and Obamacare (with a caveat from my Second Theorem of government), as well as some comments on foreign aid and fake budget cuts....