It’s Wrong for Federal Tax Deductions to Encourage Bad Fiscal Policy by State and Local Governments

by Dan Mitchell | Sep 30, 2012 | Blogs, Economics, States, Taxation

I have a handful of simple rules for good tax policy. Keep government small, since it’s impossible to have a reasonable tax system with a bloated welfare state. Keep tax rates low to minimize penalties against income, production, and wealth creation. Since capital...

Based on What’s Happening in the Czech Republic, Perhaps the Lesson to Learn Is that All Right-Wing Parties Are Controlled by Morons

by Dan Mitchell | Sep 9, 2012 | Blogs, Flat Tax, Taxation

I periodically mock Republicans for being the stupid party. Yes, some of them probably mean well, but they have this lemming-like instinct to throw themselves on hand grenades. But I noted back in April that the supposedly right-wing Christian Democrat party in...

Romney is Right that You Can Lower Tax Rates and Reduce Tax Preferences without Hurting the Middle Class

by Dan Mitchell | Aug 29, 2012 | Blogs, Economics, Flat Tax, Laffer Curve, Taxation

Even though I’m not a Romney fan, I sometimes feel compelled to defend him against leftist demagoguery. But instead of writing about tax havens, as I’ve done in the past, today we’re going to look at incremental tax reform. The left has been loudly asserting that the...

Since Leftists Don’t Like Corporate Loopholes, They Should Support the Flat Tax

by Dan Mitchell | Aug 9, 2012 | Blogs, Flat Tax, Taxation

I appeared on CNBC a couple of days ago to discuss a new report which claims that some big U.S. companies “only” paid 9 percent of their income to the government. While I’m a bit skeptical of the numbers (did it include the taxes paid to foreign governments, for...

Estonia and Austerity: Another Exploding Cigar for Paul Krugman

by Dan Mitchell | Jun 7, 2012 | Blogs, Economic Growth, Taxation

I have great fondness for Estonia, in part because it was the first post-communist nation to adopt the flat tax, but also because of the country’s remarkable scenery. Most recently, though, I’ve been bragging about Estonia (along with Latvia and Lithuania, the other...