by Dan Mitchell | Aug 4, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Tax Harmonization, Taxation
If Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama are neck-and-neck competitors in the contest to be the public face of incompetent statism in America, then the competition in Europe is between Herman van Rompuy and Olga Stefou. But since I’ve already crowned Ms. Stefou as the Queen...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 1, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
Politicians last night announced the framework of a deal to increase the debt limit. In addition to authorizing about $900 billion more red ink right away, it would require immediate budget cuts of more than $900 billion, though “immediate” means over 10 years and...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 28, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
In an ideal world, GOPers would hold firm and not pass any debt limit until Democrats agreed to enact something like the Ryan plan/Cut-Cap-Balance. But I’ve never thought that was a realistic strategy. When we got to the drop-dead point, Obama would have Geithner or...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 27, 2011 | Blogs, Taxation
I testified earlier today before the Joint Economic Committee about budget process reform. As part of the Q&A session after the testimony, one of the Democratic members made a big deal about the fact that federal tax revenues today are “only” consuming about 15...
by Dan Mitchell | Jul 25, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
As a Washington policy wonk somewhat involved in the current debt-limit fight, I will confess that it is very frustrating that the White House has never produced a deficit-reduction plan. I’d much prefer a spending-restraint plan, of course, but I’m flummoxed that...
