Taxes and Spending

Laurence Vance discusses his recent book, Social Insecurity.

Government will be so much better if we just adopt the latest fads in government reform, we’re told. Needless to say, modest reforms have a long record of total failure and the only answer is to make radical cuts to every government program.

Federal spending has soared by almost 20 percent since 2008. Yet, to hear Mr. Obama, one would think federal employees are forced to sell pencils on Constitution Avenue to raise funds to finance their bureaucratic salvation missions.

Government loans often feature lower interest rates than what can be found in the private sector. But this is only because these cheap loans are taxpayer subsidized. Meanwhile, the government bans many private loans that risky borrowers need most.

Government likes to put out lots of data showing things like income and employment for huge numbers of people.

Government likes to put out lots of data showing things like income and employment for huge numbers of people. The problem is, this tells us almost nothing about how real-life people are hurt or helped by government intervention.

"Taxes" sounds like a boring subject, but Dan brings great energy and passion to the discussion.

Unable to compete with cheap, government-subsidized services designed for the low end of the market, entrepreneurs find they must turn to higher-end customers who will pay more. Some wrongly interpret this as proof that markets are more expensive than government services.

The drop in gas prices has left households with a little extra money to spend. So naturally, the state thinks it's a great time to raise gas taxes. Otherwise, taxpayers would just waste that money on their families.

States could attract more businesses and jobs by lowering taxes and making government smaller.