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The case for a government spending amendment
Utah state government, as measured by government spending, has grown dramatically over the last several decades. This growth habit is easy to see when comparing growth in inflation-adjusted state...
View ArticleWho’s paying for the party?
A recent study by BYU professors (see here and here) tells us that when parents pay for their children’s college, those children are more likely to engage in risky behaviors like alcohol abuse than...
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Map: How much Utah and other states rely on federal funds
As we move closer toward the so-called fiscal cliff, the Tax Foundation has put out a map of the United States with estimates of how much each state relies on funds from the federal government. The...
View ArticleMap: How much Utah and other states rely on federal funds
As we move closer toward the so-called fiscal cliff, the Tax Foundation has put out a map of the United States with estimates of how much each state relies on funds from the federal government. The...
View ArticleLet’s avoid insane ‘payday loans’ for local government
According to a recent news article, a school district in California recently got a $2.5 million bond (i.e., a loan) that will cost taxpayers in the district $34 million to pay off – almost 14 times the...
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Utah’s reliance on federal spending makes the cliff’s edge painful
As Washington, D.C., moves ever closer toward taking us off the so-called fiscal cliff (which politicians in Washington created for us in the first place), it is worth looking at what the effect on...
View ArticleUtah’s reliance on federal spending makes the cliff’s edge painful
As Washington, D.C., moves ever closer toward taking us off the so-called fiscal cliff (which politicians in Washington created for us in the first place), it is worth looking at what the effect on...
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Budget deal? It’s just more spending
In these weekly commentaries I try to stay pretty even-keeled but the whole “fiscal cliff” mess has driven me over the edge. The nation – the American people – are $16 trillion in debt – $16 trillion...
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The Sundance tempest
Last week my Sutherland colleague Derek Monson wrote about the Sundance Film Festival. To highlight the unbelievable truth that a whole bunch of your tax dollars go to a film festival in Park City,...
View ArticleSpecial interests go to extremes against spending limits
The following post is a transcript of a 4-minute weekly radio commentary aired on several Utah radio stations: For the last few years, Sutherland Institute has been working on proposed legislation that...
View ArticleNational liberal fiscal insanity, or why Utah needs a spending amendment
As noted on The Weekly Standard blog, the acting director of President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget wrote an op-ed published across the country, as well as put up on the White House blog,...
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Massive regulatory costs hamper the current ‘recovery’
This chart is worth a thousand words: The regulatory costs of the first terms of President Clinton (1993-1996) and President George W. Bush (2001-2004) also occurred during economic recoveries, after...
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Thousands to lose existing insurance if Medicaid expands
This is the second of three blog posts discussing the findings of a recent state-funded report on the impacts of Utah’s pending decision on Medicaid expansion. See the first post here. Some Medicaid...
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Cast a skeptical eye on Medicaid economic impact predictions
This is the third of three blog posts discussing the findings of a recent state-funded report on the impacts of Utah’s pending decision on Medicaid expansion. See the other two posts here and here. A...
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Why Utah should celebrate being 51st
When you read the term “economic security,” what do you think of? The likelihood that you’ll be able to find and keep good employment that will provide for your family? If so, then Utah is a great...
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Infographic: Utah ranks favorably in tax and spending growth
Utah has rightly been recognized as one of the best managed states in the nation, primarily due to its conservative approach to fiscal policy. Two recently published infographics from the Tax...
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Loss of federal funds might uncover a silver lining
By Carl Graham Last week I ran across a Salt Lake Tribune story telling how some local governments and water districts are feeling the pinch as their state funding, which is dependent on federal...
View ArticleLoss of federal funds might uncover a silver lining
Last week I ran across a Salt Lake Tribune story telling how some local governments and water districts are feeling the pinch as their state funding, which is dependent on federal funding, begins to...
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The lowdown on Social Security
Many politicians talk of a Social Security trust fund, some even calling it a “lockbox.” This evokes images of a giant vault full of money stacked to the ceiling, or perhaps a huge savings account...
View ArticleThis one infographic illustrates America’s financial peril
Ricochet’s Jon Gabriel put together an infographic illustrating the extreme state of America’s finances, brought to you by a bipartisan coalition of fast-spending Republicans and Democrats. Click here...
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