by Dan Mitchell | Apr 21, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
There was a lot of wasteful spending during the pandemic. That was bad news, but what’s far more worrisome is that politicians used the pandemic as an excuse to permanently increase the spending trendline. Here’s a chart based on CBO’s historical...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 16, 2024 | Blogs, Taxation, VAT
While in Sweden last week, I wrote several columns (here, here, and here) about that nation’s fiscal policy. But I also had a discussion about American fiscal policy with one of the tax experts at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. That included a...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 11, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
When I wrote about long-run policy lessons from the pandemic, I mostly focused on the incompetence of the bureaucrats at the FDA and CDC. I also wrote that Sweden had a very sensible approach. Politicians did not...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 29, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Given what I recently wrote about America’s long-fun fiscal outlook, it is easy to understand why I expressed pessimism as part of a conversation with David McIntosh of the Club for Growth. The presidential candidates are a big reason for my dour outlook. Joe...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 28, 2024 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
The good news is that there is very little risk that President’s new budget – which is very similar to his previous budgets – will be approved by Congress. The bad news is that his budget is filled with terrible policy. Big expansions in the...