Let’s Listen to the French and Shrink Government

by Dan Mitchell | Feb 24, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending

Actually, I better add an important qualifier to that title and instead say that we should listen to a specific Frenchwoman. My friend Veronique de Rugy recently testified before a House Committee and she completely kicked you-know-what.

Spending Restraint Works: Examples from Around the World

by Dan Mitchell | Feb 22, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending

America faces a fiscal crisis. The burden of federal spending has doubled during the Bush-Obama years, a $2 trillion increase in just 10 years. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Because of demographic changes and poorly designed entitlement programs,...

How to Fix the Entitlement Problem

by Dan Mitchell | Feb 20, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements

One of my presentations at CPAC addressed America’s long-term entitlement crisis. I was part of a panel organized by the National Taxpayers Union, and I discussed how to solve the long-run fiscal problems caused by Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The lighting...

As Wisconsin Goes, so Goes the Nation

by Dan Mitchell | Feb 19, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending

After dozens of posts about overpaid government employees, I’m sick of writing about the topic. But what’s happening in Wisconsin is critically important in the fight for long-run fiscal sanity, so I’m reluctantly wading back into this fight. Simply stated,...

Obama’s Budget Means the Burden of Government Spending Will be $2 Trillion Higher in Ten Years

by CF&P | Feb 16, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending

Fiscal policy wonks (like me, I’m forced to admit) sometimes miss the forest because we focus too much on individual trees. So while I think my posts on the spending and revenue sides of Obama’s new budget contained lots of useful information, I didn’t pay any...