by Dan Mitchell | Aug 29, 2010 | Blogs, Taxation
In the private sector, no business owner would be dumb enough to assume that higher prices automatically translate into proportionately higher revenues. If McDonald’s boosted hamburger prices by 30 percent, for instance, the experts at the company would fully expect...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 29, 2010 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
I know I’ve beaten this drum several times before, but the Wall Street Journal today has a very good explanation of why class-warfare tax policy will backfire. The Journal’s editorial focuses on what happened after the 2003 tax rate reductions. And below the excerpt,...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 26, 2010 | Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
One of the many disappointing things about Republicans is that they fail to correct problems when they get power. After the 1994 “Gingrich Revolution,” the GOP had complete control of Capitol Hill. This meant complete authority over the Congressional Budget Office...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 23, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
Working in Washington is a frustrating experience for many reasons, but my personal nightmare is that bad ideas refuse to die. Keynesian economics is a perfect example. It doesn’t matter that Keynesian deficit spending didn’t work for Hoover and Roosevelt. It doesn’t...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 22, 2010 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
I ran across two interesting lists showing how politicians at the state and local level are often just as bad as the ones in Washington, DC. First, Forbes has an article identifying the 10 states with the highest income tax rates. The top rate is a big deterrent to...