Underwhelming Left-Wing Humor about the “Black NRA”

by Dan Mitchell

I’m more than willing to give credit to leftists who come up with clever political satire.

This cartoon about Fox News, for instance, is rather amusing, and this imagery about the greed of the developed world is effective even though it’s misguided.

I’ve even shared funny videos, cartoons, andimages that mock libertarians.

So when Sarah Silverman put together a pro-gun control video mocking the idea of a “black NRA,” I was prepared to laugh.

Two Huge Victories in Colorado for the Second Amendment

by Dan Mitchell

Back in 2012, I reported on some academic research showing that Democrats lost about 25 seats in the 2010 mid-term elections because of support for Obamacare.

But it’s not just big-government entitlement programs that are politically unpopular. Bill Clinton admitted that his ban on so-called assault weapons boomeranged against Democrats in the 1994 elections and he acknowledged that “The N.R.A. could rightly claim to have made Gingrich the House speaker.”

Mark Steyn Correctly Worries about Obama’s Looming Syrian Adventure

by Dan Mitchell

I’ve already shared some analysis of Mark Steyn’s libertarian-leaning views on foreign policy, so it’s very timely to see what he just wrote about Syria.

Here’s some of his new article in National Review. His humor is sharp, but he makes a very important point.

The Common-Sense Case for Dynamic Scoring

by Dan Mitchell

As regular readers know, one of my great challenges in life is trying to educate policy makers about the Laffer Curve, which is simply a way of illustrating that government won’t collect any revenue if tax rates are zero, but also won’t collect much revenue if tax rates are 100 percent.

More Americans Going Galt

Reblogged from International Liberty

President Obama promised he would unite the world...and he's right.

Representatives from dozens of nations have bitterly complained about an awful piece of legislation, called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), that was enacted back in 2010.

More Double Taxation of Dividends and Capital Gains Would Turn Tax Reform into Tax Deform

« Left-Wing Nursery Rhymes

Even though I’m a big fan of tax reform, I explained back in June that I’m not very comfortable with the “blank slate” tax reform plan put forth by Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT).

Deconstructing Barack Obama, Part I

I've argued that Obama’s not a socialist.

I wasn't trying to defend him. I was simply making the point that it’s technically more accurate to refer to him as a statist or a corporatist.

But he may be even worse than that, at least according to a must-read Kevin Williamson analysis of Obama for National Review.

Which State Has the Most Self-Reliant People?

Back in 2010, I put together a “Moocher Index” as a rough measure of which states had the highest levels of welfare dependency after adjusting for poverty rates.

Are Republicans the “Stupid Party” or the “Big-Government Party”…or Both?

I sometimes make fun of Republicans for being the “Stupid Party,” but I get genuinely agitated when they’re the “Statist Party.”

You can forgive someone for not being intelligent, after all, but it’s much harder to look the other way when they deliberately and knowingly do the wrong thing.

And that seems to be a good description of how the GOP handled the recent farm bill.

Question of the Week: ?

Will Obamacare Collapse?

We have a very interesting question from a reader in Nebraska. Is Obamacare such a cluster-you-know-what that the law will self-destruct?

Well, I’ve already explained why I’m optimistic about the possibility of turning Obamacare lemons into free-market lemonade.

Careful, the President Can Hear You Now

« Can You Find It in Your Heart to Feel Sympathy for Politicians and their Staff?

Other than Obama and Krugman, Is there Anybody Who Still Thinks Bigger Government Is Good for Growth? »

Careful, the President Can Hear You Now

June 15, 2013 by Dan Mitchell

If you liked the cartoons I shared about the NSA spying scandal, I suspect you’ll like this story even more.

It begins with a newlywed heading home to his lovely wife…but has a surprise ending.

Sort of reminds me of a scene in that cinematic class, American Pie II.

And you have to give the President credit for good timing when delivering a line. Maybe he does have a future career as a movie star?

He’d definitely do better on the silver screen than he did in his previous position.

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I Made a $16 Trillion Mistake, but Still Had a Stronger Position in this Debate

« Defending Tax Havens

I Made a $16 Trillion Mistake, but Still Had a Stronger Position in this Debate

June 14, 2013 by Dan Mitchell

I've done a handful of TV debates on Social Security, including the time I said that I wished Republicans had a secret plan for personal retirement accounts.

So I thought I was well prepared for this duel with a defender of the status quo on Fox Business Network.

 I generally think the debate went well, but I confess that I didn’t have the updated numbers on the program’s long-run deficit.

I knew the long-run fiscal gap in past Trustees’ Reports was around $30 trillion, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t exaggerate. And since perhaps the economy’s modest improvement has impacted the long-run outlook, I decided to throw out a number that surely would be on the low side.

So I said $20 trillion.

Well, nobody can accuse me of exaggeration. Here’s a chart showing the program’s dismal long-run deficit, which is compiled from Table VI.F9 and Table V.B1 of the recently released Trustees Report. If you add up the annual deficits, you get $36 trillion. And that’s in today’s dollars!

So I made a $16 trillion mistake. That’s a big number even by Washington standards.

But it doesn’t really matter since everything I said about policy was correct, regardless of whether the long-run deficit was $5 trillion, $50 trillion, or somewhere in between.

If you want to know more about right way to do Social Security reform, click here to see my video on personal retirement accounts.

And if you want to learn more about the wrong way to deal with the program’s huge long-run fiscal gap, click here to get the sobering details on the big tax increase that both President Obama and my debating opponent would like to impose.

P.S. One encouraging footnote is that personal retirement accounts continue togarner good support in public opinion polls. And with the very good results we’re seeing from nations such as Australia and Chile, I’m cautiously optimistic that reform can happen in America.

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A Depressing Look at the Modern American Voter.

My great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare state.

That’s the message in the famous “riding in the wagon” cartoons that went viral and became the most-viewed post on this blog.

Well, this Glenn McCoy cartoon has a similar theme.

What Happens When Looters and Moochers Outnumber Workers and Producers?

The all-time, most-viewed post on this blog is this set of cartoons showing how the welfare state begins and how it eventually becomes an unsustainable mess.

The great Chuck Asay has a cartoon that takes the next step, showing what happens when the looters and moochers who ride in the wagon get pitted against those who are pulling the wagon.

Since I'm not a Romney fan (for a bunch of reasons outlined here), I would have preferred if the cartoon didn't imply anything about the current election and instead focused on the rhetorical question of what happens to a society when those living off the government outnumber those who get stuck picking up the tab.

It also would have been more accurate to have the two slave drivers somehow identified as “politicians” and the “IRS.”

But it’s a very clever cartoon, so it’s worth sharing even if I’m nitpicking.

You can see my favorite Asay cartoons here, here, here, here, here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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by Dan Mitchell

Unemployment in the 1930's & the lessons for 2012

 

 

Two Pictures that Perfectly Capture the Rise and Fall of the Welfare State

July 15, 2011 by Dan Mitchell

In my speeches, especially when talking about the fiscal crisis in Europe (or the future fiscal crisis in America), I often warn that the welfare state reaches a point-of-no-return when the number of people riding in the wagon begins to outnumber the number of people pulling the wagon.
To be more specific, if more than 50 percent of the population is dependent on government (employed in the bureaucracy, living off welfare, receiving pensions, etc), it becomes rather difficult to form a coalition to fix the mess. This may explain why Greek politicians have resisted significant reforms, even though the nation faces a fiscal death spiral.
But you don’t need me to explain this relationship. One of our Cato interns, Silvia Morandotti, used her artistic skills to create two images (click pictures for better resolution) that show what a welfare state looks like when it first begins and what it eventually becomes.