by Dan Mitchell | Dec 7, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
There’s a saying in the sports world about how last-minute comebacks are examples of “snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.” I don’t like that phrase because it reminds me of the painful way my beloved Georgia Bulldogs were defeated a couple of weeks ago by...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 6, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, VAT
It’s no secret that I dislike the value-added tax. But this isn’t because of its design. The VAT, after all, would be (presumably) a single-rate, consumption-based system, just like the flat tax and national sales tax. And that’s a much less destructive way of raising...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 25, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
Every so often, when the temptation is too great, I’ll comment on something written by Paul Krugman. When he botched his analysis of Estonia, for instance, I joined that nation’s President in correcting some egregious errors. And I periodically remind people that...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 24, 2013 | Blogs
One of my first blog posts, way back in 2009, was about bureaucrats from the Social Security Administration squandering more than $700,000 on a boondoggle conference at a fancy Arizona resort. To pick a more recent example, taxpayers have plenty of reasons to be upset...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 21, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Regular readers know I complain about the army of overpaid bureaucrats in Washington, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The larger problem is that Washington also is filled with hundreds of thousands of other people who get rich thanks to big government. And...