The $1.35 trillion tax cut probably is the most complex tax legislation ever passed. Some features are not only puzzling and confusing but even peculiar and weird. They offer minuscule tax relief at the present, a reduction of some 5 percent of federal revenue during the latter part of the decade, and, in an unprecedented quirk of legislation,
Politicians rarely suit their actions to their words. They may wax eloquent about budget surpluses while they incur huge deficits. The president may “wage a war to keep the peace,” and senators and representatives may orate about frugality and “national defense” but spend freely on items designed to increase their popularity and re-electability.
An old English saying perfectly applies to election promises made by the Presidential candidates: “Vows made in a storm are forgotten in calms.” The loser need not give second thought to his promises and the winner usually is prevented from living up to the promises he made in the election storm. In his brief victory speech President Bush echoed
The Free Market 24, no. 1 (January 2004) “Deep in Debt, Caught in a Net.” This old English proverb concisely describes the financial condition of many Americans. Household debt is rising at an 8.8 percent annual rate, home mortgage debt at 14.2 percent. Total debt in the United States doubled from 1998 to 2002, from $16 trillion to $32 trillion
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.