by Dan Mitchell | May 15, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Government Waste
There’s a Terror Wing in the Moocher Hall of Fame, so I guess it stands to reason that I should create a French Wing of the Bureaucrat Hall of Fame. After all, few nations can compete with France in the contest to over-tax and over-spend. And a lot of that spending...
by Dan Mitchell | May 11, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
America has a giant long-run problem largely caused by poorly designed entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. So when I wrote last month about proposals by some Democrats to expand Social Security, I was less than enthusiastic....
by Dan Mitchell | May 6, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve openly stated that there are tax-hiking budget deals that theoretically would be attractive. But notice that “theoretically” is part of that sentence. That’s because in the real world, tax hikes have a poisonous effect on fiscal policy. Instead of being the...
by Dan Mitchell | May 5, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Okay, I’ll admit right away that the title of this column is an exaggeration. But if you’re a public policy wonk and you worry about the rising level of government dependency and the erosion of self reliance, then you’ll understand why the chart below, which was...
by Dan Mitchell | May 1, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
For the people of China, there’s good news and bad news. The good news, as illustrated by the chart, is that economic freedom has increased dramatically since 1980. This liberalization has lifted hundreds of millions from abject poverty. The bad news is that China...