by Dan Mitchell | Sep 16, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
More than 10 years ago, I wrote about President Obama’s disingenuous strategy of pretending that spending increases were tax cuts. Politicians in Washington have come up with something far more impressive than turning lead into gold or water into wine. Using...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 10, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Welfare and Entitlements
The welfare state and the so-called war on poverty has been very bad news for taxpayers. But it’s also very bad news for poor people, in part because various redistribution programs can lure them out of the productive economy and...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 7, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
The great Margaret Thatcher famously observed that the problem with socialism is that governments eventually “run out of other people’s money.” But they can do a lot of damage before they reach that point. We know from U.S. experience that Republicans...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 26, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
I periodically warn that the United States is on a path to become a European-style welfare state. That sounds good to some people since it implies lots of goodies paid for by other people. So I always explain that there’s a downside. The economic...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 19, 2021 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Keynesian, Welfare and Entitlements
Washington is filled with dishonest and self-serving analysis. Much of that shoddy output is driven by privileged groups seeking bailouts, subsidies, protectionism, or a tilted playing field. The health...