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...
by Dan Mitchell | May 28, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Health Care
In the Dirty Harry movies, one of Clint Eastwood’s famous lines is “Go ahead, make my day.” I’m tempted to say the same thing when I read about politicians proposing economically destructive policies. Indeed, I sometimes even relish the opportunity. I endorsed...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 3, 2017 | Blogs, Education
What federal program is most sacrosanct, even though it delivers poor results? Is it federal aid to education, which has plenty of defenders even though it is inversely related to school performance? Is it unemployment insurance, which has plenty of defenders even...
