All Posts Tagged With: "federal spending"
Where in the World Can You Find Economic Freedom?
Late 2003 saw the release of the most recent editions of two publications that rank the nations of the world according to their degrees of economic freedom. The Fraser Institute, located in British Columbia, put out the eighth edition of its Economic Freedom of the World and the Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal published [...]
1Sep2004 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Tax Code: Now That’s Outrageous!
If you’ve ever had the sinking suspicion that many in the mainstream media just don’t get it, then the September 2002 issue of Reader’s Digest was just for you. In its pages, conservative columnist Tucker Carlson penned his mighty attack on American business under the title “Artful Dodgers,” in the “That’s Outrageous!” department of the [...]
1Dec2002 | Scott McPherson | 0 comments | ContinuedIf Americans Really Understood the Income Tax: Uncovering Our Most Expensive Ignorance
At first glance, John O. Fox’s book on the income tax, which has a dust jacket featuring the U.S. Capitol and a magnifying glass focusing on a 1040 form, promised to be a hard-hitting critique. I was eager to read what I hoped would be an insightful and penetrating analysis of taxation by a tax [...]
1Jul2002 | Murray Sabrin | 0 comments | ContinuedWhy America Gets Fleeced
One of the occasional features on NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw is “The Fleecing of America,” a series of segments exposing cases of waste and fraud that victimize individuals or the general public. Some of the examples are swindles or scams by private companies or individuals, and the obvious solution is to exercise more [...]
1Feb2002 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedHow War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century
This article is reprinted from the July 1999 issue of The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty. After surveying the Western world in the past six centuries, Bruce Porter concluded: “a government at war is a juggernaut of centralization determined to crush any internal opposition that impedes the mobilization of militarily vital resources. This centralizing tendency of [...]
1Dec2001 | Robert Higgs | 0 comments | ContinuedBudgetary Immortality
America will soon have a new president, and that means a new budget. Successive administrations and congresses routinely claim that they’ve squeezed the last possible unnecessary cent out of their spending proposals. But such claims simply cannot be taken seriously.
1Feb2001 | Doug Bandow | 1 comment | ContinuedHow War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century
After surveying the Western world in the past six centuries, Bruce Porter concluded: “a government at war is a juggernaut of centralization determined to crush any internal opposition that impedes the mobilization of militarily vital resources. This centralizing tendency of war has made the rise of the state throughout much of history a disaster for [...]
1Jul1999 | Robert Higgs | 1 comment | ContinuedInscrutable Follies
“Don’t bother to examine a folly—ask yourself what it accomplishes.” —Ayn Rand, The FountainheadPardon if I sound like a character out of Dostoyevsky, but is it a sign I am mad when I am unable to understand what should be a simple newspaper article about taxing and spending in Washington? A New York Times article [...]
1Apr1999 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedAmerican Abundance: The New Economic and Moral Prosperity by Lawrence A. Kudlow
Forbes-American Heritage • 1997 • 212 pages • $22.95 William Peterson, a Heritage Foundation adjunct scholar, is the Distinguished Lundy Professor Emeritus of Business Philosophy at Campbell University in North Carolina. Over the last 15 years, the U.S. economy has experienced a 3 percent real average rate of growth in gross domestic product (with only [...]
1Apr1999 | William H. Peterson | 0 comments | ContinuedTo Each His Due
Tom Bethell is the author of The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages (St. Martin’s Press, 1998), from which this article is excerpted with permission of the author. Copyright © Tom Bethell. We lead lives that are so immersed in private property that we easily take its benefits for granted. Some everyday situations [...]
1Mar1999 | Tom Bethell | 0 comments | ContinuedDeficits Are Good
Doug Bandow, a nationally syndicated columnist, is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the author and editor of several books, including Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World. President Bill Clinton’s big-spending, high-taxing budget proves what many of us have long known: deficits are good. Years of unending red ink [...]
1May1998 | Doug Bandow | 0 comments | ContinuedFederal Government Growth Before the New Deal
Professor Holcombe teaches economics at Florida State University. Popular opinion holds that most of the credit (or blame) for the incredible growth of the federal government should go to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal. While Roosevelt certainly was a willing participant in that process, the federal government began its amazingly rapid growth [...]
1Sep1997 | Randall G. Holcombe | 0 comments | ContinuedCan the Budget Be Cut?
Mr. Bandow, this month’s guest editor, is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and the author of several books, including The Politics of Plunder: Misgovernment in Washington (Transaction). To listen to Washington officials, you’d think cutting the budget was impossible. In their view, every program, no matter how inconsequential, has played a critical role [...]
1Apr1997 | Doug Bandow | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: The Truth About the National Debt: Five Myths and One Reality by Francis X. Cavanaugh
Harvard Business School Press • 1996 • 192 pages • $22.95 The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason. In this book, Francis X. Cavanaugh, an astute former Treasury Department economist, applies these words of T. S. Eliot to most of the popular discussion of federal budget [...]
1Apr1997 | Robert Batemarco | 0 comments | ContinuedBalancing the Budget
It is difficult to deceive other people without their finding out. It is well nigh impossible for politicians to deceive the people who have been beguiled and disappointed innumerable times. Yet, some federal politicos do not easily break the habit. They want us to believe that the annual budget deficits are declining although the national [...]
1Mar1997 | Hans F. Sennholz | 7 comments | ContinuedNonessential Government
You might not have noticed, but the federal government closed down a while back. The sky didn’t fall. The world didn’t end. People didn’t die in the streets. In fact, it was difficult to detect any difference outside the Washington Beltway before and during the two shutdowns. Unfortunately, nothing has changed since then. The same [...]
1Jan1997 | Doug Bandow | 5 comments | ContinuedA $5 Trillion National Debt
By the time you read these lines the debt of the federal government will have passed the $5 trillion mark. Does it surpass your imagination and ability just to write the number? How many digits does it take? Are you aroused and alarmed about the ever-rising debt? Many Americans are fearful that it will lead [...]
1Sep1995 | Hans F. Sennholz | 9 comments | Continued-
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