One of the key ways of controlling state and local tax burdens, according to this map from the Tax Foundation, is to not have an income tax. But that’s not too surprising. States have just a couple of ways of generating significant tax revenue, so it stands to reason that states without an income tax […]
read more...I’ve been very critical of Obama’s class-warfare ideology because it leads to bad fiscal policy. But perhaps it is time to give some attention to other arguments against high tax rates. Robert Samuelson, a columnist for the Washington Post, has a very important insight about tax rates and sleaze in Washington. His column is mostly […]
read more...I’ve been arguing against higher taxes because of my concerns that more revenue will simply lead to a bigger burden of government spending. Yes, I realize it is theoretically possible that a tax hike could be part of a political deal that produces a good outcome, such as entitlement reform. But that doesn’t seem to […]
read more...In addition to being my former debating partner, Richard Epstein is one of America’s premiere public intellectuals. You can watch him make mincemeat out of George Soros in this video, for instance, and you can listen to his astute observations about his former law school colleague Barack Obama in this video. Given his stature, I’m […]
read more...The half-joking response to the question in the title of this post is that policymakers should look at what’s happening in poorly run jurisdictions such as California, France, Illinois, and Greece – and then do just the opposite. In other words, steer clear of punitive class-warfare tax rates and make sure to control the burden […]
read more...In a violation of the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, my brutal overseers at the Cato Institute required me to watch Wednesday’s debate (you can see what Cato scholars said by clicking here). But I will admit that it was good to see Obama finally put on the defensive, something that almost […]
read more...I have a handful of simple rules for good tax policy. Keep government small, since it’s impossible to have a reasonable tax system with a bloated welfare state. Keep tax rates low to minimize penalties against income, production, and wealth creation. Since capital formation is critical for long-run growth, don’t double-tax income that is saved […]
read more...I’m in Slovenia where I just finished indoctrinating educating a bunch of students on the importance of Mitchell’s Golden Rule as a means of restraining the burden of government spending. And I emphasized that the fiscal problem in Europe is the size of government, not the fact that nations are having a hard time borrowing […]
read more...Even though I’m not a Romney fan, I sometimes feel compelled to defend him against leftist demagoguery. But instead of writing about tax havens, as I’ve done in the past, today we’re going to look at incremental tax reform. The left has been loudly asserting that the middle class would lose under Mitt Romney’s plan […]
read more...In previous posts, I put together tutorials on the Laffer Curve, tax competition, and the economics of government spending. Today, we’re going to look at the issue of tax reform. The focus will be the flat tax, but this analysis applies equally to national sales tax systems such as the Fair Tax. There are three […]
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