by Dan Mitchell | Dec 4, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, States
Many people assume that a balanced-budget requirement is the best fiscal policy. But that’s not the case. There’s overwhelming evidence (even from surprising sources) that spending caps are the ideal fiscal rule. This is why I tell...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 9, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Last April, I shared some data showing that Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights had forced politicians in the Centennial State to return $8.2 billion of tax revenue. The state’s politicians did not want to return the money. But TABOR is a...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 31, 2023 | Big Government, Blogs, Education, Welfare and Entitlements
Time for the annual “best and worst” column, which has been a long-standing tradition (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, etc). We actually saw some major good news in 2023. Here are my top 3 developments. President Milei in Argentina – The most...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 22, 2023 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Spending caps are the only fiscal rule with a good track record. I’ve repeatedly written about Switzerland’s spending cap, known as the “debt brake,” which has limited annual spending growth to an average of just 2.2 percent over the past two decades....
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 8, 2023 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Since I care about policies rather than politicians, yesterday’s most important election was a referendum that took place in Colorado. The big-spending lobbies once again tried to weaken the state’s spending cap, known as TABOR, or the Taxpayer Bill of...
