Dan Mitchell

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Articles by Dan Mitchell

The Official Forecasts Are Nonsense: Obamacare Would Be a Budget Buster

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), the government-run healthcare plans in the House and Senate will reduce budget deficits. To use a technical phrase, this is utter nonsense. A giant new entitlement program

Health Care Reform: Don't Copy Europe's Mistakes

In this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, Eline van den Broek of the Netherlands needs only about four minutes to explain why government-run healthcare in Europe is a mistake and why the problems in the U.S.

Politicians Fiddle While America's Corporate Tax System Burns

KPMG has released its annual global survey of corporate tax systems. For the 10th-consecutive year, the average corporate tax rate fell, and it is now down to 25.5 percent (just 23.2 percent in the European Union!). In the United States,

Let's Savor the Feeling of Victory

The past nine years have been discouraging, with Bush and Obama both being big-government interventionists. But it’s nice to know that the other side still has a hard time imposing higher taxes. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page celebrates the

The Value-Added Tax: Financing the Road to Serfdom

If government-run healthcare is approved, it is very likely that politicians will then look for a new revenue source to finance all the new spending that inevitably will follow. Unfortunately, that means a value-added tax (VAT) will be high on

The Problem Is Spending, Not Deficits

Speaking recently a Steamboat Institute conference, I explain that big government is America’s fiscal challenge, not whether the spending is financed with taxes or borrowing. This issue is important because the statists are trying to create the conditions for a

Revenge of the Laffer Curve

It seems New York politicians are running into a slight problem with the Laffer Curve. According to an AP report, the state’s 100 richest taxpayers have paid $1 billion less than expected following a big tax hike. The story notes

If You Think Government Is Too Big Now, Just Wait…

…Until the politicians figure out a way of imposing a national sales tax. More specifically, the crowd in Washington is salivating at the idea of adding a value-added tax (a European-style national sales tax) on top of the income tax.

Real-World Evidence Shows Big Government Undermines Economic Performance

On Wednesday, a video was posted explaining the theoretical reasons why excessive government spending hurts growth. Just in time for the weekend, here is the second installment in the two-part series. Using cross-country data and citing scholarly research, the video

American Public Thinks 50 Percent of the Federal Budget Is Wasted

Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal has an excellent column today discussing new poll data showing that Americans think, on average, that 50 percent of the federal budget is wasted. As Steve explains, these numbers are very encouraging since

ACORN Is a Symptom, Big Government Is the Disease

By overturning the rock and letting America witness the corruption at ACORN, Hannah and James have performed an incredibly valuable service. The rest of us now have an obligation to take the next steps. Shutting off the federal spigot to