President Obama and Congress are keen to inflict many changes on this country, changes that will inflict a lot of damage. Aside from the particulars, the most significant problem with the Obama agenda is that it is a full-frontal assault on the principle of subsidiarity. Made most famous in Rerum Novarum, an encyclical published by Pope Leo III in 1891, subsidiarity is a defense against […]
Cost of government
Cato Institute gives Pawlenty a “B”
The Cato Institute has come out with its biennial report card on the fiscal performance of the nation’s governors. Gov. Tim Pawlenty earned a “B.” Chris Edwards, the institute’s director of tax-policy studies, noted that Pawlenty ran on a no-new-taxes pledge, but “his tax record in office is more mixed than that.” Edwards cites: $200 million in cigarette tax increases (“fee,” my, uhm butt) $109 million […]
Show me the spending
With the new year well underway, it’s time to start thinking of … yep, April 15. So how well is your state and local government spending your hard-earned tax dollars? Not always well. Fortunately, a new coalition has developed to let people see what’s going on across the states. It’s called Show Me the Spending. Minnesota has enacted a law letting residents search for information on […]
Minnesota is #10
We’re number 10! We’re number 10! But in this case, that’s nothing to brag about. Minnesota has the tenth-most expensive government in the country. Each year, Americans for Tax Reform computes Cost of Government Day, which measures the cost of taxation and regulation on each state. The group defines it as: the date of the calendar year, counting from January 1, on which the average American […]
We Need Grown-Up, not Childish Reaction to Bridge Collapse
A bridge collapses into a river, killing several people, traumatizing many. The reaction of some? Blame the no-new-taxes pledge that the governor took. Childish? Yes, especially when the blame was put into rhyme by one resident who used a child’s song in a letter-to-the-editor, published in one of the metropolitan area’s major newspapers. Ah, the wisdom of children! Children want what they want when they […]
The Cost of Regulation: Seen in Housing Prices
No surprise here: government action has consequences. In this case, people are being priced out of the housing market. Forbes reports on the least affordable U.S. real estate markets in its July 23 issue. Some of the numbers are astounding: “For example, in the first quarter of 2001, 42.3% of homes sold in Los Angeles were available to the median earning household. But in the first […]