"Is America Going Socialist"
Daniel Mitchell Ph.D.
Luncheon on September 18, 2009
11:30am at the Solomon Ortiz Convention Center
Watch Dr. Mitchell's new video here.
Dr. Daniel J. Mitchell is a top expert on tax reform and supply-side tax policy. Mitchell is a strong advocate of a flat tax and international tax competition. Prior to joining Cato, Mitchell was a senior fellow with The Heritage Foundation, and an economist for Senator Bob Packwood and the Senate Finance Committee. He also served on the 1988 Bush/Quayle transition team and was Director of Tax and Budget Policy for Citizens for a Sound Economy. His articles can be found in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Investor's Business Daily, and Washington Times. He is a frequent guest on radio and television and a popular speaker on the lecture circuit. Mitchell holds bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University.
Dr. Mitchell wrote the following paragraph regarding his talk.
Excessive government is a bipartisan problem. During the Bush years, the federal government budget ballooned from $1.8 trillion to $3.5 trillion, with most of that new spending going to programs and activities unrelated to national defense. Obama has picked up the baton and is racing in the same direction, adding $800-plus billion of so-called stimulus in his first few months and then proposing several hundred billion of new spending in his first budget. A government-run health care scheme, of course, would add considerable fuel to the fire. But even without all this additional spending, the combination of uncapped entitlement programs and demographic changes mean that the burden of governement spending will skyrocket. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the best-case scenario is that the burden of federal spending will double in coming decades, rising to 45 percent of gross domestic product. With state and local governments consuming about 15 percent of GDP, this means America would have a bigger government sector than every single European welfare state. This would have catastrophic economic consequences. America will suffer from slower growth, higher unemployment, and lower living standards.
To see a teasers on the talk, watch his videos titled, "Eight Reasons Why Big Government Hurts Economic Growth" and "The Empirical Evidence Against Big Government".
Read his blog at http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/
Dr. Mitchell also spoke at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi Thursday September 17th at 4:00 in Bay Hall room 104. This was a free event.
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