by Dan Mitchell | Jan 15, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, VAT
It’s not my role to pick sides in political fights, but I am very interested in trying to make bad ideas radioactive so that politicians won’t be tempted to do the wrong thing. This is why I’m a big fan of the no-tax-hike pledge. The folks in Washington salivate at...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 6, 2016 | Blogs, Flat Tax, Taxation
When I compared the tax reform proposals of various 2016 presidential candidates last month, Ben Carson got the best grade by a slight margin. But I’ve now decided to boost his overall grade from a B+ to A-, or perhaps even A, because he’s finally released details and...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 28, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
It’s time to criticize my least-favorite international bureaucracy. Regular readers probably know that I’m not talking about the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, or World Bank. Those institutions all deserve mockery, but I think the Paris-based...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 22, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
Because of the budgetary implications, I think it’s more important to deal with Medicaid and Medicare than it is to address Social Security. If left on autopilot, Social Security will eventually consume an additional 2 percent of the private economy. That’s not good...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 21, 2015 | Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve
Based on my writings, some people may think I’m 100 percent against higher taxes. But that’s not exactly true. In some cases, I like punitive taxation. Or, to be more precise, I sometimes take pleasure when punitive tax policy backfires on bad people. Here’s an...
