by Dan Mitchell | Nov 17, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation, VAT
I’ve already commented on the proposal from the Chairmen of President Obama’s Fiscal Commission (including a very clever cartoon, if it’s okay to pat myself on the back). Now we have a similar proposal from the so-called Debt Reduction Task Force. Chaired by former...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 17, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Back during the presidential campaign, Barack Obama proposed several tax increases. Some of those tax hikes, such as the proposed higher income tax rates on investors, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and other “rich” taxpayers, have received a lot of public...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 11, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
I have many pet peeves, but one that causes me endless frustration is the Washington “spending cut” scam. This happens when politicians increase spending, but claim that they’re cutting spending because they previously had planned to make government even bigger. The...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 9, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
I’ve already written about the terrible work of the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO did an awful job on the stimulus, for instance, repeatedly asserting that diverting money from the private sector to government somehow would create jobs. CBO also was a disaster...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 8, 2010 | Blogs, Taxation
The White House recently released a video, narrated by Austan Goolsbee of the Council of Economic Advisers, asserting that higher tax rates on the so-called rich would be a good idea. Since Goolsbee’s video made so many unsubstantiated assertions and was guilty of so...