Killing Obama’s “Build America Bonds” Is a Big Reason to Like the Tax Deal

by Dan Mitchell | Dec 11, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation

There are plenty of reason to like and dislike the tax deal between President Obama and congressional leaders. On the plus side, we dodge a big tax increase for the next two years. We also replace a goofy and ineffective “make work pay” tax credit with a supply-side...

Battling for Lower Taxes and Less Spending on Government-Run Radio

by Dan Mitchell | Dec 9, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation

I debated a couple of pro-tax increase folks on the Diane Rehm show Monday. If you have a spare 51 minutes and want to hear me spar with Alice Rivlin and David Walker on National Public Radio, you can listen to the discussion by clicking this link. Feedback actually...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the Tax Deal

by Dan Mitchell | Dec 7, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation

Compared to ideal policy, the deal announced last night between congressional Republicans and President Obama is terrible. Compared to what I expected to happen, the deal announced last night is pretty good. In other words, grading this package depends on your...

Words I Don’t Say Very Often: “I Applaud Senate Republicans”

by Dan Mitchell | Dec 4, 2010 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation

Much to my surprise, Senate Republicans held firm earlier today and blocked President Obama’s soak-the-rich proposal to raise tax rates next year on investors, entrepreneurs, and small business owners. I fully expected that GOPers would fold on this issue several...

Fiscal Commission Is Using Washington’s Dishonest Budget Math

by Dan Mitchell | Dec 1, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Taxation

The Chairmen of President Obama’s Fiscal Commission have a new draft proposal that is filled, according to Reuters, with “sharp spending and benefit cuts.” That’s music to my ears, so I quickly flipped to the back of the report in hopes of finding hard numbers showing...