by Dan Mitchell | Jul 8, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, States, Taxation
Here’s what I wrote last month about the fiscal situation in Illinois. Illinois is a mess. Taxes and spending already are too high, and huge unfunded liabilities point to an even darker future. Simply stated, politicians and government employee unions have created an...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 3, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Illinois is a mess. Taxes and spending already are too high, and huge unfunded liabilities point to an even darker future. Simply stated, politicians and government employee unions have created an unholy alliance to extract as much money as possible from the state’s...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 8, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
Once of the reasons that tax increases in Washington are such a bad idea (and one of the reasons why a value-added tax is an especially bad idea) is that the prospect of additional tax revenue kills any possibility of genuine entitlement reform. Simply stated,...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 26, 2016 | Blogs, Economics
There’s a somewhat famous quote from Adam Smith (“there is a great deal of ruin in a nation“) about the ability of a country to survive and withstand lots of bad public policy. I’ve tried to get across the same point by explaining that you don’t need perfect policy,...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 7, 2016 | Blogs, Economics
I shared a very amusing column last year about “a modest proposal” to reduce income inequality. Written tongue-in-cheek by David Azerrad of the Heritage Foundation, the premise was that society could be made more “fair” by exiling – or perhaps even selling to the...
