Pity the poor Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director. Congress passes and the President signs the most massive fiscal stimulus program in history, spending more money on Keynesian stimulus than has been spent so far on the Iraq war. But, unlike the Iraq war, the stimulus has been a complete bust. …
Washington think tanks and commentators continue to spin out impressive reams attempting to explain the necessity and virtues of adding a value-added tax (VAT) on top of all the taxes the federal government already collects. The fiscal policy problem is real enough—thanks to the Obama spending surge, federal budget deficits …
Unless Congress and the President intervene legislatively, federal income taxes will soar on January 1, 2011 for millions of middle- and upper-income Americans. Tax relief enacted in 2001 and 2003 is set to expire. Whose money is this? Is it the taxpayer’s money taken by government, or government’s money left …
The mainstream media is having a field day with House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R–OH) less-than-stellar handling of a simple “when did you stop beating your wife” question posed by NBC’s David Gregory on Sunday’s Meet the Press. Gregory repeatedly badgered Boehner about how he could square the Republicans’ newfound …
There are many reasons tax reform remains a distant dream. Not “tax reform” disguising a tax hike as the Obama Administration envisions, but tax reform that would make U.S. companies and workers world-class competitors, ferret out tax cheats, and make paying taxes a little less onerous to taxpayers. Perhaps the …
The New York Times got it half-right. Friday’s jobs report was highly discouraging, causing the Times to reflect that “there’s just no positive spin for this.” And you’d better believe they tried. In July, there were 131,000 jobs lost, and the unemployment rate held steady at a worrisome 9.5 percent …
According to reports, Christina Romer, Chairman of the President’s Council of Economics Advisers (CEA) is calling it quits. Why does this matter? Another ignored economist leaves Washington with a slightly tattered professional reputation to be received joyously back in the arms of her colleagues in academe having served in a …
