by Dan Mitchell | Jul 16, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending
If you asked a bunch of Republican politicians for their favorite fiscal policy goals, a balanced budget amendment almost certainly would be high on their list. This is very unfortunate. Not because a balanced budget amendment is bad, per se, but mostly because it is...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 28, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Tax Competition, Taxation
There’s a very powerful statement, variously attributed to Alexis de Toqueville, Benjamin Franklin, or Alexander Tytler, that basically warns that democracy is doomed when people figure out they can vote themselves money. There’s no evidence that any of them actually...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 16, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
As I’ve repeatedly explained, governments generally get in fiscal trouble because politicians can’t resist spending lots of money when the economy is buoyant and therefore generating lots of tax revenue. And this is why I’m a huge fan of spending caps. If outlays...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 18, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
The fact that there’s widespread support for spending caps from groups that support limited government is hardly a surprise. After all, we have lots of real world evidence that limits on the growth of government spending – if sustained for multi-year periods – can...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 23, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Republicans are probably going to surrender on spending caps, thus allowing Obama to reverse his biggest-ever defeat. Moreover, GOPers almost surely will get nothing in exchange for raising the debt limit, thus squandering an opportunity to limit profligacy in...
