by Dan Mitchell | Jan 27, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Bureaucracy, Government Spending
As a taxpayer, I don’t like the fact that government employees get paid more than folks in the private sector. But the big difference between bureaucrats and regular workers isn’t so much the pay, it’s the fringe benefits. And perhaps the biggest difference of...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 27, 2014 | Big Government, Blogs, States
Like the good people of Arizona, I despise speed cameras. But not because I want reckless driving. Instead, my disdain is based on the fact that governments set up cameras where speed limits are preposterously low in order to generate revenue. And I speak from...
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...