by Dan Mitchell | Apr 1, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
Certain redistribution programs are called “entitlements” because anybody who meets various criteria is “entitled” to automatically get money or other benefits. Economists worry that such programs (particularly the “means-tested” entitlements) create perverse...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 6, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
The tax-and-transfer welfare state is in deep trouble. I explained last year that the United States faces a very serious long-run challenge. Many of our entitlement programs were created based on the assumption that we would always have an expanding population, as...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 5, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation, VAT
When I warn about the fiscal and economic consequences of America’s poorly designed entitlement programs (as well as the impact of demographic changes), I regularly suggest that the United States is on a path to become Greece. Because of Greece’s horrible economy,...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 8, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Crime, Society, Welfare and Entitlements
Whenever mass shootings occur, some people quickly jump to conclusions before there’s any evidence. Folks on the right are occasionally guilty of immediately assuming Islamic terrorism, which is somewhat understandable. Folks on the left, meanwhile, are sometimes...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 19, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
Learning from the tremendous success of welfare reform during the Clinton Administration, the entire Washington-based welfare state should be junked. It’s a complicated and costly mess that traps poor people in dependency while ripping off taxpayers and creating very...
