Chris Edwards (Author at The Cato Institute)

Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors: 2008 (Policy Analysis)

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Revenue poured into state governments as the U.S. economy expanded between 2003 and 2007, prompting the nation's governors to expand state budgets and offer the occasional tax cut. But now that the economy has slowed and revenue growth is down, governors are taking various actions to close ris...

Grading the Governors (Commentary)

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

As the economy heads toward recession, the nation's governors will need to decide how to close rising budget gaps. Some governors will decide to scale back spending to balance their budgets; others will push for tax increases. These sorts of taxing and spending decisions are tallied in the Cato I...

Standing Still and Falling Behind (Commentary)

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Of late, U.S. economic policy has been dominated by responses to short-term crises - the Wall Street bailouts, the economic-stimulus bill, and post-hurricane spending. Whether or not such interventions make sense, they divert attention from the urgent need to bolster America's long-term competitiven...

Global Tax Revolution: The Rise of Tax Competition and the Battle to Defend It (Books)

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT

This book explores one of the most dynamic and exciting aspects of globalization—international tax competition. With rising mobility and soaring capital flows, individuals and businesses are gaining freedom to work and invest in nations with lower tax rates. That freedom is pressuring governments to...

Cato Scholar Comments on New CBO Numbers (Scholar Comments)

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT

New estimates from the Congressional Budget Office show that federal spending is expected to rise 8.3 percent in fiscal 2008 and 6.9 percent in fiscal 2009. Federal spending represents an ever larger share of the economy, rising from 18.5 percent of gross domestic product when President Bush came to office to an expected 21.5 percent next year. All that extra spending—both defense and nondefense-- is sapping America's economic strength and will utlimately reduce U.S. living standards. The top domestic priority of the next president should be to reverse this dangerous rise in the size of government, and make cuts and reforms to every area of the $3.2 trillion federal budget.

Cato Scholar Comments on Recent GAO Report (Scholar Comments)

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EDT

The GAO report did not make any determination about whether corporations were doing anything abusive at all. Thus Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) is using his vivid imagination to claim that the GAO study shows that U.S. corporate behavior is 'shameful.' Dorgan also opined that corporations were not paying their 'fair share,' yet federal corporate income tax payments have soared in recent years from $207 billion at the peak of the last boom to $345 billion this year. The GAO report identifies numerous legitimate reasons why some companies don't pay taxes in some years. In particular, many do not earn any profits in some years -- just look at the airlines and automobile companies.

Cato Scholars Comment on Presidential Candidates' Economic Plans (Scholar Comments)

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EDT

The more important issue is whether the McCain and Obama plans are sound tax policy. McCain's tax proposals, in general, would promote economic growth and provide broad-based benefits. By contrast, Obama's tax proposals embrace economic micromanagment and would add further discrimination to the tax code, meaning that his proposed narrow breaks would treat Americans differently based on social engineering criteria established by the government. Further, Obama's proposals would increase marginal tax rates on individuals and businesses, the single most damaging change that could be made to a tax system. On tax policy, the differences between the candidates are stark.

Cato Scholar Comments on Mid-Session Budget Review (Scholar Comments)

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT

The new budget estimates show that federal spending will top $3.13 trillion in 2009, up 68 percent from $1.86 trillion when the current president came to office in 2001. That increase is enormous -- indeed it is more than twice the 32 percent increase under eight years of President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. The deficit is expected to rise to a record $482 billion next year and then decline and magically disappear by 2012, based on the usual phony accounting that we have become used to from this White House. However, the deficit can be, and should be, erased by major spending reforms and cuts, and that should be the top domestic priority of the next president.

Cato Scholar Comments on States Cutting Spending (Scholar Comments)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT

In a story entitled "States Slammed by Tax Shortfalls," the Wall Street Journal reported today that states are in "pain" because they are having to "slash" spending. The story uses phrases such as "hit hard" and "ravaged" to describe the state and local budget situation. But the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data show that state and local tax revenue rose 8.4 percent in 2004, 8.9 percent in 2005, 6.6 percent in 2006, and 4.9 percent in 2007. Tax revenue growth in 2008 has slowed from the large increases of prior years, but that is a needed respite for overburdened state taxpayers. Further, the general fund spending across the 50 states has now slowed from the huge 9 percent increases of 2006 and 2007. This is good news for Americans concerned about overexpansion in government, not a fiscal tragedy as some news outlets are portraying it.

Cato Scholar Comments on McCain's Pledge to Balance Budget by 2013 (Scholar Comments)

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT

John McCain's pledge to balance the federal budget by 2013 is a laudable goal if he is willing to battle Congress and push relentlessly to cut spending in the bloated $3 trillion federal budget. Given current projections for federal revenues in 2013, he would need to cut spending by about $400 billion annually to achieve this goal. My book, Downsizing the Federal Government, provides a plan to cut spending by that amount.

However, Mr. McCain makes fiscal conservatives nervous when he seems to put bipartisan budget balancing above the need to shrink the government and enact pro-growth tax reforms. If elected, would McCain actually fight for $400 billion in federal spending cuts, or would he just trim earmarks, and close the vast bulk of the budget gap with tax increases in the name of bipartisanship? That is a key issue that supporters of limited government are weighing in this campaign.

The Phony Pinch on State Budgets (Daily Podcast)

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Cato Scholar Comments on State Budget Pains (Scholar Comments)

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT

With the slowing economy, state governments should be tightening their spending belts, especially after huge general fund spending increases of 9 percent in both 2006 and 2007. The current downturn is an opportunity to eliminate state government bloat, such as gold-plated employee benefit packages that threaten to push many states into a fiscal crisis down the road.

Obama and McCain on Taxes (Daily Podcast)

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Cato Scholar Comments on Obama's Economic Claims (Scholar Comments)

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Many of candidate Obama's claims about the economic policies of recent years are complete nonsense. In a speech yesterday Obama said, "Our president sacrificed investments in health care, and education, and energy and infrastructure on the altar of tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs."

Obama is wrong on every point in this remark. Here are the facts from the federal budget looking at Bush's first 7 years in office (FY2001 to FY2008):

Department of Health and Human Services spending up 67 percent in 7 years of Bush.
Department of Education spending up 92 percent in 7 years of Bush.
Department of Energy spending up 42 percent in 7 years of Bush.
Federal capital investment outlays up 35 percent for nondefense and 131 percent for defense in 7 years of Bush.
Federal corporate tax revenues up a stunning 128 percent in 7 years of Bush.

All these figures are available to the Obama campaign in the Federal Budget—Historical Tables. There is no reason for Obama and his advisors to make up nonsense statements about supposed spending cuts, when there are plenty actual failed economic policies that Bush could be criticized for.