Washington’s Action Plan for Ebola: Squalid Waste and Pork-Barrel Spending by the CDC and NIH, Seasoned with Corruption at HHS

Years ago, I shared a very funny poster that suggests that more government is hardly ever the right answer to any question. Yet in Washington, the standard response to any screwup by government is to make government even bigger. Sort of Mitchell’s Law on steroids. And that’s exactly what’s happening with the Ebola crisis. The […]

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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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Least Surprising Headline Ever – another Giant Cost Overrun and Huge Delay for a Pork-Barrel Infrastructure Project

When politicians create programs and announce projects, they routinely lie about the real costs. Their primary goal is to get initial approval for various boondoggles and they figure it will be too late to reverse path once it becomes apparent that something will cost for more than the initial low-ball estimates. Obamacare is a classic […]

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The Penny Plan Is a Spending-Cap Formula to Make the Trump Tax Cuts Feasible

I don’t like election years because the policy debate tends to revolve around the various proposals put forth by candidates. And since those ideas generally don’t make much sense, it’s a frustrating period. But the silver lining to that dark cloud is that it does create opportunities to comment on what the candidates are saying…and […]

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New Obama Budget: The Usual Reckless Spending Hikes…and a Big New Tax on American Energy Consumers

We have good news and bad news. The good news is that President Obama has unveiled his final budget. The bad news is that it’s a roadmap for an ever-growing burden of government spending. Here are the relevant details. The President wants the federal budget to climb by nearly $1.2 trillion over the next five […]

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Wasteful Spending, Cost Overruns, and the Never-Ending Victimization of America’s Taxpayers

Here’s a simple rule. When a politicians says a new program will cost X, hide your wallet because it actually will cost three or four times as much. Or even more. Obamacare is a particularly painful example from recent history. Simply stated, politicians and bureaucrats routinely under-estimate costs because they figure once a project or […]

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Maintaining and Enforcing Spending Caps Is a Huge Test of GOP Credibility on Fiscal Policy

Let’s celebrate some good news. When politicians can be convinced (or pressured) to exercise even a modest bit of spending restraint, it’s remarkably simple to get positive results. Here’s some of what I wrote earlier this year. …one of the few recent victories for fiscal responsibility was the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA), which only […]

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“Cromnibus” Spending Bill Is a Victory and a Defeat

So what should libertarians, Reagan conservatives, and other advocates of smaller government think of the “cromnibus” spending bill? The answer depends on your benchmark. If you dislike insider deals, pork-barrel spending, and you think the federal government should be limited to the enumerated powers put in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers, then the cromnibus […]

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Everything You Need to Know about the Harmful Effects of FEMA and Federal Disaster Relief

With Florence about to hit, it’s time to preemptively explain how the federal government makes damage more likely and why post-hurricane efforts will make future damage more likely. There are just two principles you need to understand. When Washington subsidizes something, you get more of it, and the federal government subsidizes building – and living […]

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Just Because Democrats Are Terrible, that Doesn’t Mean Republicans Are Good

Howie Rich has a very good column at Townhall.com. He asks whether Republicans have learned any lessons during their time in the minority, specifically whether they recognize that bloated and wasteful spending under Republicans is just as bad as bloated and wasteful spending under Democrats: The GOP’s new revisionist message was summed up in a […]

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Coronavirus and Big Government, Part III

I wrote about “Coronavirus and Big Government” on March 22 and then followed up on March 27 with “Coronavirus and Big Government, Part II.” Now it’s time for the third installment, and we’ll start with this hard-hitting video from Reason, which shows how red tape has hindered the development and deployment of testing in the […]

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Government, Coronavirus, and Libertarianism

Some folks are using the coronavirus crisis to say that libertarianism is an inadequate approach to governance. Noah Smith got the ball rolling with a snarky tweet. Since total government spending is at an all-time high and since even left-leaning fact checkers have debunked the assertion that public health bureaucracies have been reduced, Smith’s core […]

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California Has Many Natural Advantages, but How Long Can It Survive Big Government?

In 2016, here’s some of what I wrote about the economic outlook in Illinois. There’s a somewhat famous quote from Adam Smith (“there is a great deal of ruin in a nation“) about the ability of a country to survive and withstand lots of bad public policy. I’ve tried to get across the same point […]

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Hopes and Fears for Policy in 2018

Happy New Year! We listed yesterday the good and bad policy developments of 2017, so now let’s speculate about potential victories and defeats in 2018. Here are two things I hope will happen this year. Welfare reform – If my friends and contacts on Capitol Hill are feeding my accurate information, we may see a […]

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The Never-Ending Rip Off of Government Infrastructure, the NYC Edition

In 2011, I wrote about how taxpayers were getting pillaged to finance a new metro line in Fairfax County, Virginia. But you won’t be surprised to learn that California taxpayers are getting screwed even worse. I’ve since learned, however, that the real experts at wasting money are in the Big Apple. Earlier this year, as […]

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The Federal Government Should Get Out of Infrastructure

I’ve called for the abolition of the Department of Transportation. On more than one occasion. So I was very excited to see this new video about infrastructure from Johan Norberg. Very well put. As Johan says (channeling Bastiat), we should remember that jobs are destroyed when money is taken out of the private sector to […]

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The “Stupid Party” Strikes again with a Disheartening Deal to Avoid a Government Shutdown

Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. In theory, that means a long-overdue opportunity to eliminate wasteful programs and cut pork-barrel spending. In reality, it mostly means business as usual. Politicians in Washington just reached a deal to fund the government for the rest of the current fiscal year. As reported by […]

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California Secession Would Force West-Coast Leftists to Confront Reality

I’m not a big fan of Donald Trump, mostly because I fear his populist instincts will deter him from policies that we need (such as entitlement reform) while luring him to support policies that are misguided (more federal transportation spending). But I admit it’s too early to tell. Maybe my policy predictions on Trump will […]

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The United States Has the Third-Most Competitive Economy, but Could Be #1 if Government Was Smaller and Less Expensive

Most folks in Washington are still digesting last night’s debate between Tweedledee and Tweedledum. If that’s what you care about, you can see my Twitter commentary, though I was so busy addressing specific issues that I failed to mention the most disturbing part of that event, which was the total absence of any discussion about […]

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Clinton and Trump (Clump?) vs. Taxpayers and Free Enterprise

When Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton agree on things, it’s always bad news for taxpayers. They both want to boost the capital gains tax rate on private equity investment. They both want to let the entitlement problem fester and worsen. They both want more federally financed pork-barrel spending on infrastructure. Now they both agree that […]

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More Items for the Libertarian Humor Collection

I have an entire page dedicated to libertarian-related humor. Unfortunately, the majority of my collection makes fun of libertarians. So I’m always on the lookout for new items that will even up the balance. And here’s something clever, at least for people who are familiar with both Gary Johnson’s failure to know the supposed significance […]

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My Presidential Choice

I periodically get asked who should be in the White House. Since I’m a policy wonk rather than a political pundit, I generally sidestep the question. Though it probably isn’t too hard to figure out my preference if you peruse what I’ve written about previous presidents. I’m a huge fan of both Ronald Reagan and […]

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Will “Mind-Blowing” Demographic Change Lead to Fiscal Disaster?

Maybe future events will require a reassessment, but right now the biggest danger to the western world isn’t terrorism. Nor is it climate change. Or Zika. Or even Donald Trump. The real threat is demographic change. America’s population profile already has changed, but the future shift will be even more dramatic. But demographics changes are […]

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The Best and Worst Developments of 2015

What were the most noteworthy events from 2015? Regarding bad news, there’s unfortunately a lot of competition. But if I’m forced to pick the very worst developments, here’s my list. Resuscitation of the Export-Import Bank – I did a premature victory dance last year when I celebrated the expiration of the Export-Import Bank’s authority.  I […]

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Get Washington Out of the Business of Redistributing – and Wasting – Transportation Dollars

I’ve argued (repeatedly) that we should abolish the Department of Transportation and allow states to make decisions on how to fund and whether to fund transportation projects. As an interim measure to control federal spending, involvement, and intervention, I’ve explained that Congress should do nothing to increase revenues into the highway trust fund. Supporters of […]

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Green Energy, Corruption, Reform Conservatism, and the Size of Government

Remember Solyndra, the festering symbol of green-energy corruption that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money being flushed down the toilet? And that was just one example. Based on the ratio of energy produced compared to insider enrichment, the entire green-energy racket is a sleazy boondoggle. For taxpayers, this is a lose-lose […]

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The Left Is Salivating for a New Energy Tax on American Consumers

Because of the need to control the size and scope of government, it’s critically important to reject all tax hikes. Simply stated, once politicians think there’s a possibility of more revenue coming to DC, any commitment to spending restraint and entitlement reform will quickly evaporate. It’s especially important not to let politicians get new sources […]

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Great (and Not so Great) Moments in Tax Avoidance

When people figure out ways to keep the money they earn in their own pockets, rather than having it confiscated by government, I’m almost always happy. That’s because governments tend to waste money (should any of us pay for corrupt pork-barrel spending?). And it’s because government impose bad tax policy (is it fair to have […]

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Another Victory for Fiscal Responsibility: The Death of Earmarks

I wrote a few days ago that advocates of smaller government have won a very significant victory over the past five years, as measured by the fact that there’s been zero growth in overall federal spending. And because the private economy has grown while the federal budget has been flat, this means that the burden […]

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Wasting Money Is Washington’s Favorite Activity

It’s unfortunate that Senator Tom Coburn is retiring. He hasn’t been perfect, but nobody can question is commitment to limited government. He’s been a rare voice in Washington against wasteful spending. And he’s going out with a bang, having just released the 2014 edition of the Wastebook. It’s a grisly collection of boondoggles and pork-barrel […]

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