Tax and Spend

Here's a nice statistic for anybody who still believes Republicans support smaller government and fiscal responsibility.

"Under the leadership of House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio), the 112^th House of Representatives has thus far approved legislation that has increased the debt of the federal government by $2,176,949,774,695.46—or approximately $18,944 for per American household."

Usually the opposition party resists spending by the party in power, but not Boehner's Republicans. This is a nice reminder how they've been Obama's best enablers.

Will death spiral cities and states like California and Illinois enact exit taxes to stop people from taking their wealth and fleeing high taxes?

Why government spending should not be included in national production statistics.

"Why should government product be excluded? First, the government’s activities may be viewed as giving rise to intermediate, rather than final products, even if the government provides such valuable services as enforcement of private property rights and settlement of disputes. Second, because most government services are not sold in markets, they have no market-determined prices to be used in calculating their total value to those who benefit from them. Third, because many government services arise from political, rather than economic motives and institutions, some of them may have little or no value. Indeed, some commentators—including the present writer—ultimately went so far as to assert that some government services have negative value: given a choice, the people victimized by these “services” would be willing to pay to be rid of them. "

I agree with all these, but the second one is very important. Because government funds itself through theft, we can't measure how much value it provides or how much wealth it destroys.