by Dan Mitchell | Apr 29, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation
We can learn a lot of economic lessons from Europe. Never adopt a VAT unless you want much bigger government. Bigger government means lower living standards. Don’t believe Bernie Sanders about the Nordic nations. Today, we’re going to focus on another lesson, which is...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 21, 2016 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation, VAT
The value-added tax is a very dangerous levy for the simple reason that giving a big new source of revenue to Washington almost certainly would result in a larger burden of government spending. That’s certainly what happened in Europe, and there’s even more reason to...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 14, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
If you follow the contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, most of the tax discussion is about who has the best plan to squeeze the rich with ever-higher tax rates. For those motivated by spite and envy, Bernie Sanders “wins” that debate since he wants...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 2, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs
Does Donald Trump have a consistent and coherent set of economic policies? He sometimes says things indicating that he understands Washington is a cesspool of waste. But on other occasions, he seems to be singing off the same song sheet as Bernie Sanders. Which is...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 31, 2016 | Blogs, Economics, States, Taxation
Even though it’s theoretically possible to design a desirable budget deal that includes a tax increase, I’m a big advocate of the no-tax-hike pledge for the simple reason that – in the real world – support for genuine spending restraint and real entitlement reform...
