Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Barack Obama (Surprisingly) Is Not the Biggest Spender of All

by Dan Mitchell | Aug 29, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending

I got involved in a bit of a controversy last year about presidential profligacy. Some guy named Rex Nutting put together some data on government spending and claimed that Barack Obama was the most frugal President in recent history. I pointed out that Mr. Nutting’s...

Challenge for Keynesian Anti-Sequester Hysterics: Why Did America’s Economy Boom When Reagan and Clinton Reduced the Burden of Spending?

by Dan Mitchell | Mar 6, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian

Triggered by an appearance on Canadian TV, I asked yesterday why we should believe anti-sequester Keynesians. They want us to think that a very modest reduction in the growth of government spending will hurt the economy, yet Canada enjoyed rapid growth in the...

An Invaluable Economic History Lesson from Thomas Sowell: Politicians Should Only “Do Something” If that Means Doing Less

by Dan Mitchell | Sep 12, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian

The great Ronald Reagan famously said (and I am paraphrasing, since I do not remember the exact phrase) that the most dangerous words in the English language were “I am from Washington and I am here to help you.” Those are very wise words, especially when we think of...

The White House Is Crazy to Invite a Comparison of Job Creation under Reagan and Obama

by Dan Mitchell | Aug 28, 2012 | Blogs, Economics

I’ve done a few comparisons of economic performance under Reagan and Obama, sometimes using the interactive data from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank. And I’ve done a few TV interviews on the same subject. But something was very different in this interview...

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Which President Is the Biggest Spender of All?

by Dan Mitchell | May 24, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending

A financial columnist named Rex Nutting recently triggered a firestorm of controversy by claiming that Barack Obama is not a big spender. Here’s the chart he prepared, which certainly seems to indicate that Obama is a fiscal conservative. Not only that, it shows that...