A Cartoon that Sums Up the Political Situation

I’m not overly excited about the 2012 presidential race, especially since the major choices at this point are three candidates who don’t seem to have much commitment to economic freedom and individual liberty. Obama (Tweedledee) Romney (Tweedledum) Gingrich (hmmm…how about Tweedledoh?) So when someone sent me this cartoon, I immediately decided it had to be [...]

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New Congressional Budget Office Numbers Once Again Show that Modest Spending Restraint Would Eliminate Red Ink

Back in 2010, I crunched the numbers from the Congressional Budget Office and reported that the budget could be balanced in just 10 years if politicians exercised a modicum of fiscal discipline and limited annual spending increases to about 2 percent yearly. When CBO issued new numbers early last year, I repeated the exercise and [...]

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Some Belated State-of-the-Union Humor

Back during the 1990s, President Clinton cleverly began to refer to his spending initiatives as “investments.” He obviously hoped that voters could somehow be tricked into supporting bigger government by playing a bait-and-switch game with words. Since the burden of federal spending fell significantly during the Clinton years, I’m not sure he was successful in [...]

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New Academic Study Confirms Previous IMF Analysis, Shows that Lower Tax Rates Are the Best Way to Reduce Tax Evasion

Leftists want higher tax rates and they want greater tax compliance. But they have a hard time understanding that those goals are inconsistent. Simply stated, people respond to incentives. When tax rates are punitive, folks earn and report less taxable income, and vice-versa. When tax rates increase, sometimes they engage in tax avoidance, lowering their [...]

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Is an Ex-Congressman Lobbyist Capable of Shame?

I’ve written before about the sleazy and corrupting impact of earmarks. And I’ve debunked the lobbyist arguments in favor of earmarks. Heck, I’ve even done NPR interviews about this unseemly Washington practice. So I like to think I’m reasonably knowledgeable about the system. But even I’m shocked to learn how a former Massachusetts Congressman has [...]

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Good and Bad News in International Survey on Regulation

Even when the results coincide with my views, I have a jaundiced view of polling data. In large part, this is because the answers often depend on how a question is framed. That being said, I periodically link to polling data about economic policy if I think we can glean some insight from the data. [...]

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Captain Obama Didn’t Slip and Fall into a Lifeboat, but He’s Kept the Economy on the Rocks

People keep emailing and complaining that I must be an Obama supporter since I periodically post critical information about Romney and Gingrich. In response, I say that it’s my role to simply tell the truth and dispassionately analyze public policy. But being disappointed in the leading Republicans doesn’t mean I’m deluded about Obama and his [...]

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Dan Mitchell’s State-of-the-Union Tax Analysis

I’ve already posted the Cato Institute’s overnight response to the President’s state-of-the-Union speech. Here’s the Dan Mitchell pre-SOTU speech to congressional staffers. I’ve already had people ask me for the charts I used in the speech. Here’s the double taxation chart. Here’s the tax complexity chart. Here’s the data on the Laffer Curve in the [...]

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Since Obama’s Class-Warfare Tax Policy Is Failing in Illinois, Why Does He Think It Will Work for the Entire Country?

President Obama’s two biggest “achievements” since taking office are the so-called stimulus and government-run healthcare. But neither one of those policies are popular, so the President largely ignored them during his state-of-the-union address and instead focused on using the tax code to promote “fairness.” But fairness doesn’t mean treating everyone equally by adopting a flat [...]

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The Laffer Curve Works, Even in France

One year ago, I wrote about how the French government was getting unexpected additional revenues following the implementation of lower tax rates. This is the Laffer Curve in action, and it’s happening again in France, only this time because the government reduced the wealth tax. Here’s part of the story at Tax-news.com. France’s solidarity tax [...]

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Newt Gingrich Wants to Send Our Wallets and Purses into Outer Space

I was nauseated when Newt Gingrich did the infamous global warming ad with Nancy Pelosi. I was disgusted when he criticized Paul Ryan’s entitlement reforms. But I’m not sure what my reaction is to Newt’s latest brain fart. For lack of anything clever, let’s just say I’m bemused by his proposed galactic boondoggle. Here are [...]

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Political Photo(shop) Humor

Folks keep asking me to re-issue the post about the classroom socialism experiment, but that seems redundant when I can simply link to original post. With that taken care of, let’s look at some new political humor. The Ron Paul people win the award for the most intensity. So even though this almost surely isn’t [...]

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Should the Fiscal Pyromaniacs at the IMF Get another $500 Billion so They Can Advocate Keynesian Spending and Class-Warfare Tax Hikes?

Perhaps the title of this post is a bit unfair since the International Monetary Fund is good on some issues, such as reducing subsidies. And some of the economists at the IMF even produce good research. But I can’t help but get agitated that this behemoth global bureaucracy wants more money when it has a [...]

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The Cato Institute Responds to President Obama’s State-of-the-Union Address

I’ve already bragged that the Cato Institute is America’s best think tank, highlighting the fact that we took the lead in battling against Obama’s faux stimulus at a time when many were dispirited and reluctant to fight big government. I’m biased, of course, so I’ll understand if you discount what I say. But I hope [...]

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Make Obama’s Speech Bearable by Playing State-of-the-Union Bingo!

I like the folks over at Americans for Tax Reform because of the no-tax-hike pledge. As I’ve previously explained, that pledge is a necessary tool in our battle to restrain the burden of government spending. But the people at ATR also have a good sense of humor, the latest example of which is the Bingo [...]

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Romney: A Total Failure on Double Taxation

Last night’s GOP debate did nothing to change my sour opinion of Mitt Romney. During a discussion about tax reform, he attacked Newt Gingrich for the supposed crime of not wanting to double tax capital gains. Here’s how Politico reported the exchange. Newt Gingrich joked about Romney’s 15 percent tax rate, saying: “I’m prepared to [...]

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Clever Left-Wing Satire vs. Stupid Left-Wing Satire

I’m perfectly willing to give my opponents credit when they do something clever and/or effective. I posted this video making fun of libertarians, for instance, because it is genuinely funny. People like me, I will confess, sometimes are so allergic to government that we do things that make us easy targets for satire. Well, here’s [...]

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Deconstructing Jonathan Alter’s “Five Myths about Barack Obama” in the Washington Post

The Washington Post is a left-wing newspaper, so I’m never surprised to find examples of biased reporting. Last month, for instance, I made fun of the Post for asserting that Germany was “fiscally conservative.” I also mocked the Post last March, when a reporter hysterically claimed that a proposal to trim $6 billion from a [...]

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Europe’s Fiscal Crisis Is Caused by too Much Government, and Deficits and Debt Are Merely Symptoms of that Problem

I don’t expect a  good outcome to the European fiscal crisis, largely because nobody seems to understand that the real problem is excessive government spending. The economic illiterates in the press sometimes say the fight in Europe is between austerity and Keynesianism, but that’s not accurate. It’s really a battle between those who think big [...]

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What’s More Compassionate for the Poor, Dependency or Self-Reliance?

I’ve written a couple of times about the Food Stamp program, citing ridiculous examples of waste, fraud, and abuse. These include: Using food stamps to buy luxury coffee at Starbucks. Buying steaks and lobster with food stamps. The Obama Administration rewarding states that sign up more food stamp recipients. Proposals to make it easier to [...]

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Illinois Leftist Does a Facepalm, Confirming that Higher Taxes Enable Higher Spending While Trying to Make the Opposite Point

Two days ago, I explained that tax increases are bad policy. More specifically, I warned that giving more money to government exacerbates fiscal problems because politicians respond to the expectation of more revenue by spending more than otherwise would be the case. And since they usually over-estimate how much revenue a tax hike will generate, [...]

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Making Obama Seem Reasonable by Comparison, Merkel and Sarkozy Propose Higher Taxes to “Strengthen Growth Now”

The German Chancellor and French President have put together a plan to boost growth. Sounds like a good goal, but what specifically are they proposing? Some of the obvious ideas include: Lowering tax rates to boost incentives for productive behavior. Reducing the burden of government spending to allow more efficient allocation of labor and capital. [...]

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The “Cougar” Edition of Great Moments in Political Correctness

I try not to get too wound up about political correctness. As a general rule, it’s best to make fun of the that crowd, which is why I have shared PC versions of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and the Fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper. Every so often, though, I come across a [...]

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Illinois Downgrade Provides More Evidence that Higher Taxes Make Fiscal Problems Worse, not Better

I don’t blame the Democrats for wanting to seduce Republicans into a tax-increase trap. Indeed, I completely understand why some Democrats said their top political goal was getting the GOP to surrender the no-tax-hike position. I’m mystified, though, why some Republicans are willing to walk into such a trap. If you were playing chess against [...]

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Good Cartoon about Organized Crime and Government

I don’t agree with the editorializing that was added above this cartoon. I’ve always been partial to the welfare-dependency-wagon cartoons produced by a former Cato intern. And readers have made this cartoon the most-viewed post in the history of this blog. Nonetheless, this is definitely worth sharing.   The last line, though, is exactly right. [...]

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ABC News Produces Empty and Biased Story on Mitt Romney and Tax Havens

Exactly 10 days ago, I predicted that the press would attack Mitt Romney for using tax havens. In that post, I wrote that, “…based on the questions, it appears that the establishment media wants to hit Romney for utilizing tax havens… As far as I can tell, none of these reporters have come out with [...]

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In the Battle to End the Failed War on Drugs, Sir Richard Branson Has an Exalted New Role as a Cato Publicist

I’m currently in the British Virgin Islands to speak at a conference. As you can see from this photo (taken from my satellite office), I’m having to endure hardship conditions. But I’m willing to suffer because I believe in making personal sacrifices in the battle for liberty. As you can probably guess, I’m speaking about [...]

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Another Much-Needed Defense of Tax Competition and Tax Havens by a British Politician

I sometimes make fun of the English, for reasons ranging from asinine laws to milquetoast politicians to horrid healthcare policy. But at least some U.K. elected officials are willing to stand up for tax competition and fiscal sovereignty by defending low-tax jurisdictions. In previous posts, I’ve applauded Dan Hannan and Godfrey Bloom for great speeches [...]

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Understanding the Left-Wing Mind, as Illustrated by a Cartoon

This cartoon perhaps could have been useful during the Occupy Wall Street protests, but I already had a lot of fun mocking those people. Or maybe I could have used it during the Greek riots, since it captures the entitlement mentality of that nation’s looters and moochers. But why limit ourselves. In the spirit of [...]

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Obama Administration Supports Rogue IRS Regulation in Order to Please Europeans, even though It Will Undermine American Banks and Hurt the U.S. Economy

I’ve written several times about a proposed IRS regulation that would force American banks to put foreign law above U.S. law. I’ve repeatedly warned that the scheme, which would force financial institutions to report the deposit interest they pay to foreigners, is bad economic policy, bad regulatory policy, and bad banking policy. My arguments have [...]

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