Barely 20 months after his inauguration, Barack Obama is said to ‘own’ the ongoing recession just as George W. Bush was blamed for a stock market swoon almost as soon as he was inaugurated. Assigning responsibility for a bad economy…
When “trickle-down” rolls downhill
Whether states should transfer money on down to local governments is a debatable question. The aim of such transfers is to make our society more equitable, not necessarily more efficient. But if citizens have decided that state revenue transfers to…
Tax debate needs to go deeper than politics
Federal tax policies lie at the core of ongoing arguments between the two major political parties. Unfortunately, this debate focuses on only one issue, marginal tax rates for individual income taxes. It ignores the equally important issues of what should…
Don’t get hooked by geography in federal spending
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty this week defended accepting a $250 million federal health grant in part because what Minnesota pays in federal taxes is much less than federal spending in our state. By coincidence, I had just gotten an e-mail…