by Dan Mitchell | Sep 5, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Regulations
I like France, in part because it’s a nice place to visit, but also because I’ve been able to use the country as an example of bad public policy. Its tax system is a nightmare, leading entrepreneurs to escape to other nations (hardly a surprise when tax rates can...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 3, 2017 | Blogs, Economics
Government subsidies have an unfortunate habit of causing widespread economic damage and often result in huge burdens for taxpayers (though sometimes consumers are the ones getting pillaged). Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac subsidies contributed to a massive housing...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 25, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs
In my 30-plus years in Washington, I’ve lived through some very bad pieces of legislation. George H.W. Bush’s betrayal of his “read my lips” promise with the 1990s tax increase. Bill Clinton’s 1993 tax hike, which OMB admitted 18 months later was a failure. All sorts...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 27, 2017 | Blogs, Economics
When I debate my leftist friends on the minimum wage, it’s often a strange experience. When other people are listening or watching, they’ll adopt a very extreme position and basically claim that politicians have the power to dramatically boost take-home pay by simply...
by Dan Mitchell | May 30, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Welfare and Entitlements
In a recent interview on the new Trump budget, I hit on some of my usual topics such as growth, real-world fiscal numbers, tax reform, fake budget cuts, entitlement reform, and my Golden Rule. But I want to call attention to the part of the discussion that started a...
