Tad DeHaven

Tad DeHaven

Receive Updates from Tad DeHaven

 

What’s ‘Wacky’ About Wanting to Eliminate the USDA?

By Tad DeHaven (May 29, 2012)

Over at the Washington Post‘s PostPartisan blog, Jonathan Bernstein discusses the rising influence of the “Ron Paul crowd” on Republican state party platforms. Bernstein... more

White House Cronyism Is Disturbing, But Not New

By Tad DeHaven (May 27, 2012)

The Obama campaign is trying to hang so-called “vulture” capitalism around Mitt Romney’s neck, but as two excellent opinion pieces explain, it’s the administration’s crony... more

The States are Already Getting Bailed Out

By Tad DeHaven (May 21, 2012)

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) advise the states to get their fiscal houses in order instead of holding out hope for a... more

Freshman Republicans Switch from Tea to Kool-Aid

By Tad DeHaven (May 19, 2012)

This week the Club for Growth released a study of votes cast in 2011 by the 87 Republicans elected to the House in November 2010. The Club found that “In many cases, the... more

Congress Keeps its Hand Around the Neck of USPS

By Tad DeHaven (May 07, 2012)

The postal reform bill passed in the Senate last week is further evidence that politicians shouldn’t be entrusted with running a hotdog stand, let alone the nation’s mail.... more

Postal Reform: A Telling Survey

By Tad DeHaven (May 06, 2012)

First-class mail is the USPS’s most profitable product. Thus, the large – and permanent – drop in first-class mail volume has the USPS facing red ink as far as the eye can... more

Detroit Doesn’t Need More Federal Money

By Tad DeHaven (Apr 28, 2012)

With the City of Detroit heading toward bankruptcy, The Hill reports that Mayor Dave Bing has signed a $330,000 contract with a Washington lobbying firm to help the city grab... more

Federal Funds for Cleaning Up Abandoned Mines

By Tad DeHaven (Apr 23, 2012)

An article in the Wall Street Journal offers another example of the problem with the federal government tackling issues that should be left to the states to resolve. Congress... more

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Spending Cuts

By Tad DeHaven (Apr 22, 2012)

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) are pushing back against criticism from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops over the... more

Welfare and Private Charity

By Tad DeHaven (Apr 16, 2012)

A new policy paper from my colleague Michael Tanner analyzes the growth in the American welfare state and concludes that “throwing money at the problem has neither reduced... more

About Those Postal Retiree Health Benefits

By Tad DeHaven (Apr 14, 2012)

While Congress is busy trying to figure out how it’s going to continue screwing up the U.S. Postal Service, postal expert Michael Schuler has been busy analyzing the reasons... more

How Not to Make the Case for Terminating Federal Programs

By Tad DeHaven (Apr 09, 2012)

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney recently gave the following response to a reporter’s question on what programs he would cut: Of course you get rid of... more

General Services Administration: Let the Taxpayers Eat Cake

By Tad DeHaven (Apr 07, 2012)

The head of the General Services Administration, which is the federal government’s procurement and property manager, has resigned in the wake of a report from the agency’s... more

Postal Problems: the Role of Government Micromanagement

By Tad DeHaven (Apr 06, 2012)

Postal expert Michael Schuyler has released a follow-up to his January paper that compared the recent financial performance of the U.S. Postal Service to foreign postal... more

Conservative House Republicans’ Budget Proposal

By Tad DeHaven (Apr 02, 2012)

The Republican Study Committee released its fiscal 2013 budget proposal this week and it’s not horrible. That’s probably a compliment given that the bar is so low on Capitol... more

Obama's 2013 Budget

By Tad DeHaven (Mar 26, 2012)

Cato Institute budget analyst Tad DeHaven evaluates the federal budget process in 2012. Tad DeHaven is a budget analyst on federal and state budget issues for the Cato... more

Santorum’s Tunnel and Federal Transportation Policy

By Tad DeHaven (Mar 19, 2012)

If, like me, you’re a Pennsylvanian who wants a smaller federal government, you’ve probably been scratching your head at Rick Santorum’s success in the Republican primaries.... more

Abolish the Small Business Administration

By Tad DeHaven (Mar 18, 2012)

A new brief from the Congressional Budget Office discusses the role of small businesses in the economy and how they’re affected by federal policy. The CBO cites the Small... more

Terminate the Small Business Administration

By Tad DeHaven (Mar 12, 2012)

There's plenty of talk about cutting the federal budget these days in Washington. And there's lots of fighting over the size of the federal government. But there has been... more

Corporate Welfare: A Bipartisan Love Story

By Tad DeHaven (Mar 10, 2012)

I have previously discussed how multiple levels of government work together to provide businesses with taxpayer money (see here and here). And while Republican policymakers... more

USDA Turning Taxpayer Money into Wine (Really)

By Tad DeHaven (Mar 06, 2012)

Today’s example of how the federal government has become too darn big is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Value-Added Marketing Grant program. This (relatively) little... more

'Even Though Earmarks Are Gone, There Are Still Billions of Dollars Available'

By Tad DeHaven (Mar 04, 2012)

That quote from a local government official in California sums up why banning earmarks won’t do much to rein in the size and scope of the federal government. The quote comes... more

Postal Service Stuck with Govt Biz Model

By Tad DeHaven (Feb 27, 2012)

The U.S. Postal Service has released a new five-year plan for congressional consideration that it says would get the beleaguered government mail monopoly on sounder financial... more

Al Franken to Chu: Doggone It, Like My State’s Company

By Tad DeHaven (Feb 26, 2012)

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing last week on the Department of Energy’s budget request for fiscal 2013. Chris Edwards tipped me off to a... more

Obama’s Proposed Cuts and the Scope of Government

By Tad DeHaven (Feb 18, 2012)

The president’s fiscal 2013 budget includes a 213 page document that contains 210 proposed cuts, consolidations, and other savings. That sounds like a lot until one finds out... more

Obama’s Budget: This Isn’t Built to Last

By Tad DeHaven (Feb 17, 2012)

In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama said that he wanted an American economy that is “built to last.” Today’s release of his fiscal 2013 budget proposal... more

Report: Govt Spending Doesn't Add to Economy

By Tad DeHaven (Feb 12, 2012)

At the center of the debate over efforts by policymakers to “stimulate” the economy with government spending is the issue of fiscal multipliers. Some economists argue that... more

WaPo: Lawmaker Directs $500,000 for Bike Path Near Home

By Tad DeHaven (Feb 11, 2012)

A Washington Post investigation identified dozens of examples of federal policymakers directing federal dollars to projects that benefited their property or an immediate... more

Baloney Budget Reform

By Tad DeHaven (Jan 28, 2012)

I don’t recall ever agreeing with the left-liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), but their new paper on the drawbacks of the federal government switching to... more

State Dependency on the Federal Government

By Tad DeHaven (Jan 26, 2012)

The president’s fiscal 2013 budget proposal is scheduled to be released on February 13th. State officials are predictably sounding the alarm on the coming “deep cuts” to... more

U.S. Postal Service Fares Worse in Recession than Foreign Posts

By Tad DeHaven (Jan 22, 2012)

A new paper from postal expert Michael Schuyler compares the financial performance of the U.S. Postal Service to foreign postal service providers. Not surprisingly, the USPS,... more

Obama Proposes New Department of Corporate Welfare

By Tad DeHaven (Jan 21, 2012)

Contrary to what various news outlets are reporting, President Obama is NOT proposing to cut government. The administration is proposing to take four independent federal... more

Pennsylvania Moves to Starve Poor People

By Tad DeHaven (Jan 14, 2012)

That’s the message I came away with after reading an online article from a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter about a decision by the state of Pennsylvania to limit eligibility... more

A Guide to the Presidential Candidates' Proposals to Cut Spending

By Tad DeHaven (Jan 03, 2012)

Over at Downsizing the Federal Government, Chris Edwards and I have regularly complained that most policymakers have been insufficiently specific when it comes to identifying... more