How many government workers does it take to fix a broken faucet? Answer: more than 200.

First, you need dozens to fill out paperwork. Then, you need someone to change the horseshoes of the department's imaginary horses. Then --

Wait. Horseshoes?

Sadly, it's not a joke. The Mackinac Center's Jarrett Skorup reports:

Despite having no horses, the water and sewerage department for the city of Detroit employs a horseshoer... continue reading »

In my syndicated column this week, I write about the family budget I featured in my last show:

Add eight zeros to that, and you get the federal government's budget. That's unsustainable.

Yet:... continue reading »

Will we soon have riots like those in Greece?

This graph shows that we're on track to reach Greek levels of debt in about ten years.

Most reporting on the Greek riots miss the big point:

The Greek "austerity" reforms aren't nearly enough... continue reading »

The government's principal responsibility is to provide our national defense, but do our policies promote defense? Or offense? My column this week discusses the military.

With an election approaching and at least some Americans upset about irresponsible spending, the president has finally expressed a political interest in cutting something. He says the Pentagon will spend "only" $525 billion next year. That's slightly less than the current $531 billion... continue reading »

Tonight on my show we'll debate whether the trillions of dollars we spend on defense (and offense?) really make us safer.

One excess of government that we don't cover tonight is covered ably this week in the Wall Street Journal.

Arthur Herman writes about unconscionable excesses in the way our military acquires equipment and weapons.

"Pentagon acquisition," Herman says, "employs more than 30,000 people--the equivalent of two full Army divisions."... continue reading »

Government does too much, but defense is what government is supposed to do: keep us safe from our enemies.

But Ron Paul says our current government goes too far. This week, we debate that.

David Henderson, an economist at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School says Ron Paul is right, but Colonel David Hunt with 29 years in counter-terrorism operations, says Rep. Paul's foreign policy ideas are naive... continue reading »

Medicare is going broke, but almost no one wants to cut any of it.

When Congressman Paul Ryan proposed tiny cuts, he was attacked for wanting to "throw granny off a cliff."... continue reading »

Once again, some people are hysterical about nonexistent cuts to the military.

Yesterday, President Obama announced that over the next 10 years he wants to slow the increase in military spending.

Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) criticized "massive cuts to our military."... continue reading »

I've written before about our exploding national debt. But all the trillions and billions can be hard to comprehend. It's why this image from a chain e-mail has gone viral:... continue reading »

The Deficit Supercommittee will probably not reach an agreement by its Wednesday deadline - and the result might be 1.2 trillion in "automatic cuts" over the next 10 years. $600 billion of that would come out of the defense budget.

Politicians howl about that.

"We cannot put America's safety in jeopardy by virtue of the failure of this committee," Romney said... continue reading »