Here’s Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin’s first congressional district, on federal taxation, as his remarks appeared on Monday, November 15th in USA Today. Ryan is set to become chairman of the House Budget Committee in the new Congress Stop the Tax Hikes By Paul Ryan Congress should act now to prevent across-the-board tax increases from…
Government Spending
Government Spending, Politics
John Stossel: Did Freedom Win?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Libertarian John Stossel has cause for skepticism: ….Remember the last time the Republicans took power? They promised fiscal responsibility, and for six of George W. Bush’s eight years, his party controlled Congress. What did we have to show for it? Federal spending increased by 54 percent. That’s more than any president in the last 50…
Economy, Government Spending
Reason.tv: Where are the Jobs? The Parallels between Today and the Great Depression
by JOHN ADAMS •
Reason considers our economic situation today and compares it with one from the ’30s. I don’t think the New Deal brought private jobs back, but I will say this much for FDR (as I have before): his New Dealers cared more about results than any local official hawking an empty idea like a so-called ‘Innovation…
Government Spending, School District, Taxes/Taxation
An Exercise in Allocating Responsibility
by JOHN ADAMS •
A woodworker builds and sells birdhouses. He gathers materials, maintains a shop, and makes a few at a time for display and sale. To advertise his trade, he puts a sign in the window of the workshop: REASONABLY-PRICED BIRDHOUSES FROM A LOCALLY-OWNED AND OPERATED WORKSHOP ONLY $29.95 EACH A customer visits the shop, takes a…
Government Spending, School District, Taxes/Taxation
An Exercise in Moderation
by JOHN ADAMS •
A man walks into a restaurant, and orders seven cheeseburgers for dinner. Still hungry an hour later, he orders eight more. After just another hour, he looks into his wallet, and sees that he has enough money to order yet nine more. He motions to the waiter, and prepares to order nine burgers. Just as…
Economy, Government Spending
Reason.tv: Porker of the Month for October 2010 – Debbie Wasserman Shultz
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s time for Reason’s Porker of the Month, and this month’s winner is Debbie Wasserman Shultz. Reason explains: Reason.tv presents: Citizens Against Government Waste’s Porker of the Month for October 2010: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz! What do you do when you and your friends in congress go on a taxpayer funded spending binge, only to…
Free Markets, Government Spending, Liberty, Planning
Sumner, Roosevelt, and the Forgotten Man
by JOHN ADAMS •
Conservation, Government Spending
Volt Fraud at Government Motors – Investors.com
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s simply wrong to claim this thing’s especially good for the environment — Advertised as an all-electric car that could drive 50 miles on its lithium battery, GM addressed concerns about where you plug the thing in en route to grandmas house by adding a small gasoline engine to help maintain the charge on the…
Government Spending, Politics, Taxes/Taxation
Coolidge as the ‘Great Refrainer’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Amity Shlaes, author of the fine The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, has an essay originally published at Forbes in which she praises Calvin Coolidge as The Great Refrainer. Shlaes writes that When Harding died suddenly in 1923, Coolidge knew he was going to need another pair of hands to launch…
Government Spending, Politics
Draining the Swamp of Red Ink
by JOHN ADAMS •
Congressman Paul Ryan’s office released the text of a speech he delivered in Oregon. Ryan’s noted for a budget roadmap he’s drafted, but it says much about our politics that budgetary reform makes both many Democrats and many of Ryan’s fellow Republicans uncomfortable. The address appears below. Rep. PAUL RYAN: Like my home state of…
Economy, Government Spending, Politics, Taxes/Taxation
Number of the Week: Slow Growth Adds to Deficit – Real Time Economics – WSJ
by JOHN ADAMS •
If, for example, the U.S. economy grows at an inflation-adjusted annual rate of 1.7% — about the rate it’s currently growing — government debt will reach 122% of annual economic output as of 2015, up from 93% now. Annual growth of 2.7% would cut that estimate to 110%. The difference equates to about $2.2 trillion,…
Economy, Government Spending, Libertarians, Planning
Wait, Herbert Hoover Wasn’t a Libertarian? – Reason Magazine
by JOHN ADAMS •
No, he wasn’t! Yet, one often hears — erroneously — that Hoover was a laissez faire Republican, and that Roosevelt’s election marked a sharp break from those policies. That’s not only false, but wildly false. Hoover was a big-government Republican. (It was Coolidge — who had numerous disagreements with Hoover — who was a defender…
Government Spending, Politics
Opinion: A step toward curing Washington’s spending disease – eliminating earmarks – Rep. Eric Cantor – POLITICO.com
by JOHN ADAMS •
There is no question that earmarks – rightly or wrongly – have become the poster child for Washington’s wasteful spending binges. They have been linked to corruption and scandal, and serve as a fuel line for the culture of spending that has dominated Washington far too long. These reasons alone would justify completely eliminating earmarks,…
Government Spending, Taxes/Taxation, Wisconsin
Cato Institute’s 2010 Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Cato Institute has released its 2010 Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors, and Wisconsin fares poorly in the report. I’ve be a sometime critic of the outgoing Doyle Administration’s policies, but candidly, his Republican predecessors (Thompson, McCallum) left the state’s finances in poor condition, too. The return of a Republican to the governor’s…