Welcome. This is Anastasia Yuglova bringing you the Cato Daily Podcast.

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On September 28, Cato Director of Tax Policy Studies, Chris Edwards, testified on the current

state of the U.S. economy before the Senate Committee on Budget and the Senate Committee on Finance.

In his testimony, Chris argued that the U.S. economy continues to expand and that we appear

to be in the middle of a long boom.

In his podcast today, he explains which policies brought us here and what we need to focus on going forward.

To what does the U.S. economy owe the current boom that we're in?

Well, a lot of Republican policy makers in the Bush administration argue pretty strongly

that the Bush tax cuts and other Republican policies are the cause of the current economic

boom, and certainly the Bush tax cuts have played a role in the current expansion,

but I suspect the main reason why the U.S. economy is experiencing such good growth and low

inflation these days has to do with just the strength of the U.S. private sector,

the power of America's entrepreneurs

and the dynamism of global markets that United States operates in today.

In your testimony before the Budget Committee you argue that, I quote,

many studies have shown that all else

equal the larger the government's share of the economy the slower economic growth

will be why is that the case? Well there's many studies that point to that conclusion that the larger government produces smaller growth.

For example, Cato's Economic Freedom of the World Report shows that all else equal countries

with bigger governments and more spending have slower economic growth over time.

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