A Spending Cap Amendment Is Far Better than a Balanced Budget Amendment

The Swiss Debt Brake and Colorado’s TABOR work because they limit spending. Balanced budget requirements, by contrast, have a weak track record. My point in the above discussion with the Soul of Enterprise is mostly based on economics. Our fiscal challenge in the United States is excessive government spending. And the problem is projected to […]

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America’s Top Fiscal Problem Is…?

I narrated a six-minute video in 2009 to explain why America’s fiscal problem is spending rather than red ink. Here’s the same message in just 51 seconds. If 51 seconds is too much, here’s a visual I created using the latest long-run forecast from the Congressional Budget Office. The key thing to understand is causality. […]

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The CPI-X Spending Cap

The ideal fiscal policy is a spending cap and the specific design is not terribly important so long as the net effect is to have government spending grow slower than the private sector. Switzerland’s Debt Brake complies with this requirement. Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights complies with this requirement. Today, let’s look at another proposed […]

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The Solution to Maine’s Fiscal Problems – and a Lesson for the Entire Nation

When I write about fiscal policy, there are two ever-present themes. Bad tax policy reduces growth and competitiveness, driving away jobs, people, and investment. Bad spending policy occurs when budgets grow faster than the economy’s productive sector. And both of these themes can be found in a comprehensive new report issued by the Maine Policy […]

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How Should the Constitution Be Changed?

John Stossel has added to his collection of great videos. His latest releases asks whether the Constitution should be amended. If you watch carefully, you’ll see that I made an appearance toward the end. My clip lasts only about five seconds, but I used that short segment to say that the main goal should be […]

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The Constitution, the Supreme Court, and Judicial Activism

Some of my right-wing friends complain about “judicial activism,” which seems to mean that they want courts to defer to other branches of government. Since I’m opposed to majoritarianism and because I want courts to defend and protect all parts of the Constitution, I put together this visual to illustrate why I think they’ve picked […]

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Swamp-Creature Republicans Think They Can Atone for a Spending Binge with a Hollow (and Sure-to-Lose) Vote for the Wrong Version of a Constitutional Amendment

My major long-run project during Obama’s presidency was to educate Republicans in Washington about the need for genuine entitlement reform. I explained to them that the United States was doomed, largely because of demographics, to suffer a Greek-style fiscal future if we left policy on autopilot. Needless to say, I didn’t expect any positive reforms […]

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In Just Six Minutes, Everything You Need to Know about Spending Caps

Back in April, I shared a new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity that explained how poor nations can become rich nations by following the recipe of small government and free markets. Now CF&P has released another video. Narrated by Yamila Feccia from Argentina, it succinctly explains – using both theory and evidence […]

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New CBO Numbers Confirm Simple Task of Balancing the Budget with Modest Spending Restraint

It’s not a big day for normal people, but today is exciting for fiscal policy wonks because the Congressional Budget Office has released its new 10-year forecast of how much revenue Uncle Sam will collect based on current law and how much the burden of government spending will expand if policy is left on auto-pilot. […]

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More Evidence that Balanced Budget Rules Don’t Work as Well as Spending Caps

If you asked a bunch of Republican politicians for their favorite fiscal policy goals, a balanced budget amendment almost certainly would be high on their list. This is very unfortunate. Not because a balanced budget amendment is bad, per se, but mostly because it is irrelevant. There’s very little evidence that it produces good policy. […]

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Debt, Bubbles, and Reckless Government

As a general rule, I’m not overly concerned about debt, even when looking at government red ink. I don’t like deficit and debt, to be sure, but government borrowing should be seen as the symptom. The real problem is excessive government spending. This is one of the reasons I’m not a fan of a balanced […]

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Budget Myths and Facts for the 2016 Campaign

I have a very mixed view of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is an organization representing self-styled deficit hawks in Washington. They do careful work and I always feel confident about citing their numbers. Yet I frequently get frustrated because they seem to think that tax increases have to be part of […]

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Balanced Budget Requirements Don’t Work as Well as Spending Limits

When I first came to Washington back in the 1980s, there was near-universal support and enthusiasm for a balanced budget amendment among advocates of limited government. The support is still there, I’m guessing, but the enthusiasm is not nearly as intense. There are three reasons for this drop. Political reality – There is zero chance […]

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The “National Taxpayer Advocate” at the IRS Is Advocating for the Government, not Taxpayers

I’m not a big fan of the Internal Revenue Service, though I try to make sure that politicians get much of the blame for America’s convoluted, punitive, and unfair tax code. Heck, just look at these three images – here, here, and here – and you’ll find startling evidence that politicians make the tax system […]

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I Hope I’m Wrong, But Here’s Why Republicans Will Lose the Debt-Limit Fight

There are three reasons why I’m not very hopeful about the outcome of the debt-limit battle. 1. There is no unity in the GOP camp. Republicans have been all over the map during this fight. Some of them want a balanced budget amendment. Some want a one-for-one deal of $2 trillion of spending cuts in […]

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Republicans Are Even Stupider than I Thought

I posted yesterday about the stunning political incompetence of Republican Senators, who reportedly are willing to give Obama an increase in the debt limit in exchange for a vote (yes, just a vote) on a balanced budget amendment. As I explained, there is no way they can get the necessary two-thirds support to approve an […]

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The Stupid Party Strikes Again: Republicans May Raise Debt Limit in Exchange for Symbolic BBA Vote

The old joke in Washington is that Democrats are the evil party and Republicans are the stupid party (which is why you should guard your wallet and freedom whenever you hear talk of “bipartisanship”). The GOP definitely is doing what it can to prove that at least one side of that joke is true. Republicans […]

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Choosing the Flat Tax over the Fair Tax

After my recent post on “bashing the IRS,” I got several emails and comments asking whether a national sales tax might be a better idea than the flat tax. I’m a big fan of proposals such as the Fair Tax. I’ve debated in favor of the national sales tax, done media interviews in favor of […]

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