by Dan Mitchell | Apr 26, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Even though I favor radical reductions in the burden of government, I’ve made the point that good fiscal policy merely requires that government spending grow slower than the private sector – what I call Mitchell’s Golden Rule. And if lawmakers simply cap the growth of...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 24, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Government Spending
With the exception of a few top-notch thinkers such as Pierre Bessard and Allister Heath, there are very few people in Europe who can intelligently analyze public policy, particularly with regard to fiscal issues. I don’t know if Fredrik Erixon of the Brussels-based...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 9, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
Many people think that my opposition to tax increases is ideological, but they’re wrong. If someone told me that I magically had the power to flick a switch and give the country a flat tax, but that simple and fair tax system would only be possible if the rate was set...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 4, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Actually, Bill Clinton must be something even worse than a social Darwinist. That’s because the title of this post is wrong. Obama said that Paul Ryan’s plan (which allows spending to grow by an average of 3.1 percent per year over the next decade) is a form of...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 3, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Society, Welfare and Entitlements
Why is big government bad for an economy? The easy answer is that big government usually means high tax rates, and this penalizes work, saving, investment, and entrepreneurship. And perhaps some of the spending is financed by borrowing, and this diverts money from...
