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Republican Deficit Hypocrisy

The human capacity for self-delusion never ceases to amaze me, so it shouldn't surprise me that so many Republicans seem to genuinely believe that they are the party of fiscal responsibility. Perhaps at one time they were, but those days are long gone. ...

From BRUCE BARTLETT, Forbes,  19 Nov 2009

Related Topics: U.S. House of Representatives,  U.S. Republican Party,  Congressional Budget Office,  U.S. Senate,  George W. Bush

The Europeanization Of America

In 1944, the Austrian economist F.A. Hayek published an extraordinarily influential book, The Road to Serfdom. In it, he argued that liberalism eventually leads to totalitarianism; that is, once a nation has embarked on the creation of a welfare state, ...

From BRUCE BARTLETT, Forbes,  12 Nov 2009

Related Topics: European Union,  Heritage Foundation,  Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,  University of California, Los Angeles,  Bureau of Labor Statistics

Yet Another Budget Commission?

One of these days, Congress needs to raise the federal debt limit. As of Nov. 3, the debt subject to limit was $11,978 billion--and the limit is $12,104 billion. With the Treasury needing to borrow $26 billion per week to finance this fiscal year's ...

From BRUCE BARTLETT, Forbes,  6 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Congressional Budget Office,  Barack Obama,  U.S. Republican Party,  White House,  Government Accountability Office

The Great Depression And The Great Recession

Eighty years ago this week, the stock market crashed. Although it was more a symptom of the economy's underlying problems than a cause of the Great Depression, it is still considered the day the worst economic crisis in American history began. I've ...

From BRUCE BARTLETT, Forbes,  28 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Federal Reserve,  Milton Friedman,  World Bank,  International Monetary Fund,  U.S. Congress

Support The VAT

Opposing it because it's too good is like breaking up with your girlfriend because she is too beautiful. A few years ago, I concluded that the magnitude of our looming fiscal problem was so enormous that higher taxes were inevitable--and that was long ...

From BRUCE BARTLETT, Dallas Blog,  24 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Los Angeles Times,  Ronald Reagan,  American Enterprise Institute,  Hoover Institution,  Robert Hall

The Supply-Side Pariah Returns

Enter the recipients' email addresses, separated by commas: Your email has been sent. Conservatives deride Bruce Bartlett, a supply-side economics inventor, as a Keynesian for criticizing their devotion to tax cuts. But circumstances, not his ...

From BRUCE BARTLETT, The Daily Beast,  20 Oct 2009

Related Topics: George W. Bush,  U.S. Republican Party,  Bruce Bartlett,  Rupert Murdoch,  Jack Kemp

Don't Cut The Payroll Tax

Rising unemployment is fueling support, primarily among Republicans, for the idea of temporarily cutting the Social Security tax. While superficially attractive, this is actually a dreadful idea that will not stimulate employment at all and will just ...

From BRUCE BARTLETT, Forbes,  14 Oct 2009

Related Topics: U.S. Republican Party,  Congressional Budget Office,  Franklin D. Roosevelt,  World Bank,  Joseph Stiglitz

It's Time For Deficit Reduction

Few people on the right or left deny the necessity of deficit reduction. The deficit figures projected were unsustainable even before the recession collapsed tax revenues and necessitated an expansion of spending. Nor do the left and right disagree on ...

From BRUCE BARTLETT, Forbes,  9 Oct 2009

Related Topics: U.S. Democratic Party,  Ronald Reagan

The Whiskey Rebellion: All They Wanted was a Value Added Tax

In response to Sean Linnane’s post recalling the anniversary of the Whiskey Rebellion, the historical lesson drawn from this event is usually that Americans are inherently anti-tax.  Actually, that’s not quite true. The problem with taxing whiskey wasn’ ...

From BRUCE BARTLETT, New Majority,  25 Sep 2009

Fiscal Responsibility Requires Higher Taxes

Throughout most of our nation's history, political conservatives really only had one thing in common: They all believed in a balanced federal budget. They might disagree on religion, foreign policy and any number of other issues, but everyone who ...

From BRUCE BARTLETT, Forbes,  23 Sep 2009

Related Topics: U.S. Republican Party,  George W. Bush,  Dick Cheney,  U.S. Congress,  U.S. Democratic Party

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