by Dan Mitchell | Jun 20, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy, States
I don’t know if Dr. Seuss would appreciate my title, which borrows from his children’s classic. But given how I enjoy comparative rankings, I couldn’t help myself after perusing a new study from WalletHub that ranks states on their independence (or lack thereof)....
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 17, 2017 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
Whenever I debate my left-wing friends on tax policy, they routinely assert that taxes don’t matter. They argue that we don’t have to worry about the Laffer Curve because high tax rates don’t discourage taxable income. They argue that we don’t have to worry about...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 29, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
If I had to pick my least-favorite tax loophole, the economist part of my brain would select the healthcare exclusion. After all, that special preference creates a destructive incentive for over-insurance and contributes (along with Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, etc)...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 20, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy
When I write about poorly designed entitlement programs, I will warn about America’s Greek future. Simply stated, we will suffer the same chaos and disarray now plaguing Greece if we don’t engage in serious reform. Ideally sooner rather than later. But when I write...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 9, 2017 | Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation
To pick the state with the best tax policy, the first step is to identify the ones with no income tax and then look at other variables to determine which one deserves the top ranking. For what it’s worth, I put South Dakota at the top. Picking the state with the worst...