by Dan Mitchell | Mar 18, 2023 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Back in 2012, I wrote a column for the Wall Street Journal to highlight the success of Switzerland’s spending cap (also known as the “debt brake”). Swiss voters voted for this spending cap in 2001 and ever since it took effect in 2003,...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 10, 2023 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
President Biden has released his 2024 budget, which mostly recycles the tax-and-spend proposals that he failed to achieve as part of his original “Build Back Better” plan. It is not easy figuring out his worst policy. Is it one of the proposed tax...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 8, 2023 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
The combination of demographic change and poorly designed entitlement programs is producing an ever-increasing burden of federal spending. In my Twelfth Theorem of Government, I pointed out that this inevitably will mean big tax increases on...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 7, 2023 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
Which European nation has the costliest welfare state? Greece would be a good guess, but it’s only in second place. At the top of the list, according to OECD data, is France, where government spending consumes nearly 60 percent of the nation’s economic...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 6, 2023 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
There’s been great progress in recent years with regards to state tax policy. When I put together my first ranking back in 2018, there were 9 states with flat taxes and and 3 states with low-rate graduated tax systems. Today, there are 11 (soon to...