Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'national debt'

The moral weight of taxation

As Congress works on a $6 trillion spending bill that would be funded by higher taxes and increasing the national debt, Americans should be asking themselves: When is taxation morally permissible? Continue Reading...

The great price of America’s great lockdown

One reason why economists are viewed as modern-day Cassandras is that they tell us many things we don’t want to hear. Economics points relentlessly to the costs and benefits associated with particular decisions about alternative uses of scarce resources. Continue Reading...

The Spending Splurge and the End of Sacrifice

America’s debt is creating not servants of higher things but slaves to government, says Ray Nothstine in this week’s Acton Commentary. As our nation’s $17 trillion debt spirals out of control, and spiritual disciplines decline in the West, we need to face the reality of America’s inability to collectively sacrifice. Continue Reading...

Finally, A Monument to Calvin Coolidge

Today, career politicians are out of fashion. In light of Washington’s dysfunction and a hyper partisan culture, the words of politicians offer little reassurances. Their deeds even less. One career public servant is finding his popularity on an upswing exactly eighty years after his death. Continue Reading...

Calvin Coolidge: A Rare Kind of Hero

Calvin Coolidge is ripe for national recognition and his wisdom is being sought out perhaps now more than ever. If you’re a voracious reader of commentary and columns you’ve noticed his common sense adages are being unearthed at a rapid pace. Continue Reading...

Raising Taxes without a Balanced Budget is Insane

It makes little, or really no sense for Americans to fork over more taxes without a balanced federal budget and seeing some fiscal responsibility out of Washington. The fact that the United States Senate hasn’t passed a budget in well over three years doesn’t mean we aren’t spending money, we are spending more than ever. Continue Reading...

Amity Shlaes and the ‘Forgotten President’

I just read the introduction to Amity Shlaes’s forthcoming biography, Coolidge: Debt, Perseverance and the American Ideal. She has been very gracious in taking an interest in the work I have been doing on Coolidge and my recent Acton commentary on the 30th president. Continue Reading...