by Dan Mitchell | Nov 1, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Laffer Curve, Taxation, VAT
I’m not a big fan of the International Monetary Fund, largely because the folks in charge oftentimes advocate toxic policies such as bailouts, higher taxes, and currency devaluation. But there are some top-rate economists working at the IMF, and the bureaucracy has...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 30, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
Here’s a remarkable chart showing that we spend about $60,000 on various welfare programs for every poor household in America. And what are we getting for that giant expenditure of money? Well, as this other chart shows, our progress in the fight against poverty came...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 28, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending, Health Care
I used to think I was in favor of every possible step to reduce the burden of government spending. Are agricultural subsidies wasteful and corrupt? Yes, so get rid of the Department of Agriculture. Is Medicaid spending out of control? Yes, so cap outlay growth and...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 26, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
I’ve shared BIS and OECD data showing that the United States has a bigger long-run fiscal burden than Europe. That’s a bit of a strained comparison since “Europe” includes fiscally responsible countries such as Switzerland and Estonia, but also soon-to-be failed...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 25, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
You have to give President Obama credit for chutzpah. He pushed through a faux stimulus in his first year and Obamacare in his second year, both of which significantly increased the burden of government spending. In the past two years, he’s basically punted, proposing...
