by Dan Mitchell | Dec 19, 2014 | Blogs, Economics, States
I’m a big fan of federalism for both policy and political reasons. Returning programs to the states is the best way of dealing with counterproductive income-redistribution policies such as welfare, Medicaid, and food stamps. Federalism is also the right way of...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 2, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Tax Competition, Taxation
My colleagues Chris Edwards and Nicole Kaeding have just released the biannual Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors from the Cato Institute. The Report Card is on the Cato Institute’s most impressive publications sincedevelopments on the state level help...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 15, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Health Care
Let’s enjoy some semi-good news today. We’ve discussed many times why Obamacare is bad news, whether we’re looking at it from the perspective of the healthcare system, taxpayers, or workers. But it could be worse. Writing in the Washington Post, Robert Samuelson...
by Dan Mitchell | May 9, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, States, Taxation
More than three years ago, I wrote that the Department of Transportation should be dismantled for the simple reason that we’ll get better roads at lower cost with the federalist approach of returning responsibility to state and local governments. I echoed those...
by Dan Mitchell | May 7, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
As you can imagine, there’s a lot to choose from in the contest for the most spectacular waste of tax dollars. But the politicians in Oregon must really want the prize, because they managed to flush several hundred million dollars down a rat hole by putting together a...