Taxes and Spending

International trade is the topic du jour. Mark Thornton shares his recent presentation on a timely and important book featuring many of your favorite authors.

Is “austerity” in the future for the US Government? Awash in debt and facing economic crises, the government may have to go on a diet, something neither Congress nor the president want to do.

President Trump has suggested that the government eliminate the personal income tax and replace it with tariffs. While some may champion that proposal, the truth is that it is much easier to add a new tax than it is to eliminate it.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville recently claimed that Trump‘s tariffs will improve the economy, but only after a period of painful adjustment. “No pain, no gain,” he said. The truth is that the tariffs will inflict pain without any net gains.

For all the political rhetoric about building “affordable housing,” the reality is housing prices will only go up, and tariffs will contribute to the increase.

This article delves into the real cost of war as explained by Joseph Salerno in his book Money: Sound and Unsound. Contrary to Keynesianism, war destroys wealth and destroys an economy from within.

While Elon Musk and his DOGE team have made some highly-publicized “cuts” in federal spending, much of the federal budget has been hammered in stone for a long time. It will take fundamental changes in spending patterns to make a real difference.

Property taxes, by its critics, have correctly been described as unjust, regressive, and inefficient, in addition to having a disproportionate effect on lower-income homeowners who potentially have more of a struggle to pay them.

While Marxist progressives claim that “class conflict” is the source of social ills, the true conflict involves the tax-consuming caste using state power to plunder the productive tax-paying caste.

Within two months of operation, DOGE has generated sufficient savings to fully repay the debt owed to Mexico or Germany.