Policy analyst for @CatoInstitute covering the federal fisc. Fan of struggling causes (limited government & Buffalo Bills).
United States
Joined August 2011
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Pleased to announce that I will be joining @RominaBoccia's budget team at @CatoInstitute later this week!
I'm glad to be joining an outstanding organization that fights for American founding ideals such as limited government and free markets.
David Ditch retweeted
Switzerland succeeds despite its wealth tax, not because of it. Its government spends less, and low taxes on investment offset the wealth tax’s damage. The lesson for the United States is to spend and tax less, writes Cato’s @adamnmichel.
ow.ly/YTcR5100i4b
David Ditch retweeted
New @UChicago study: a federal ultraprocessed food labeling mandate would cost more than $14B annually, which would largely be recovered through (surprise) higher grocery bills.
David Ditch retweeted
Except it’s not.
Social Security is NOT mandatory retirement savings.
It’s a welfare program with expansive eligibility.
It has a progressive benefit calc and a means-testing tax part, and still transfers too much money from younger working families to wealthier retirees.
First place AZ only scored 70.8%. Drops below 50% at 28th place (WY), plunges to 31.9% for NY and 29.2% for HI. Lots of room for improvement at the state level.
Blue states can be a lot more progressive FOR FREE by fixing this: cato.org/freedom-50-states/2…
Where does your state rank? The 2026 edition of "Freedom in the 50 States" measures economic and personal freedom across all 50 states.
Check the rankings at the link: ow.ly/m13K51007Em
It is worth noting that most of the changes enacted last year are not in effect. However, from the tone of reporting one would think that the program has been eviscerated rather than tweaked at the margins.
Federal Medicaid spending is up 8% from FY 2025 to FY 2026.
@MarcGoldwein, @mfcannon, @larry_levitt - where are the cuts?
issuesinsights.com/2026/10/2…
David Ditch retweeted
Social Security's financial problems are usually blamed on demographics: longer lives and fewer children.
But that overlooks another major culprit: unsustainable benefit design.
New piece for the Wharton Pension Research Council blog 🧵
“I would almost compare it to economic bumper bowling,” said David Ditch, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. “A favorable treatment that really no other industry is provided.”
"American farmers don’t need Washington to guarantee them a profit," the Editorial Board writes.
"They need Washington to stop making it harder for them to earn one." wapo.st/4hZGKkE
David Ditch retweeted
Who could have possibly predicted this outcome?
Or, is it simply the unstated objective of the national conservatives.
There is an alternative: leave the private sphere of action -- including commerce -- to the private sector. That is what freedom conservatism is about. It is also common sense. #freecon
semafor.com/article/10/21/20…
David Ditch retweeted
California hasn't built its bullet train because the state has required 130,000 pages of environmental reports, making absurd demands like:
• counting bumblebees one by one
• rebuilding woodrat stick huts
• hiring specialized dogs to sniff lizard scat
ATTN Congress: lowering the FMAP rate would encourage states to keep an even sharper eye on fraud.
From a policy perspective, this is some of the lowest hanging fruit available when it comes to deficit reduction. Medicare is heavily subsidized across the income scale, wealthy seniors clearly do not need subsidization, and costs are unfairly placed on current workers.
Last is my contribution, where I pitch a linear reduction in subsidies for high-income seniors on Medicare Part B through IRMAA payments.
hoover.org/research/reducing…
David Ditch retweeted
What has $7.8 trillion in federally backed mortgages actually accomplished?
• US homeownership sits at ~65% – virtually what it was in the late 1960s.
• Home price and construction volatility remain among the highest in the developed world.
Federal intervention has boosted home mortgage debt, not homeownership.
Full report: cato.org/restoring-free-ente…
David Ditch retweeted
🧵Congress adjusts tax brackets with a more accurate inflation measure than the one used for benefit programs like Social Security, SSI, SNAP, and Medicaid. That inconsistency will cost taxpayers more than $270 billion over the next decade.
👇
David Ditch retweeted
Story after story follows the same format.
Medicaid doesn’t pay doctors enough, so patients can’t find care. Large federal subsidy program is implemented. The large federal subsidy program sort of helps but is also inefficient, easily shunted to special interests, defrauded, and otherwise succumbs to the same things that many large federal subsidies do.
The individual state, which is actually responsible for setting medicaid rates, and is thus responsible for the problem in the first place, sees the large subsidy program and loses all incentive to fix the funding problem.
Then some politician comes along and sees the massive amount of waste in the federal program and tries to cut it back. Now everyone wails that they can’t possibly treat medicaid patients without the large federal subsidy program. New politician comes in and not only restores the program, expands it to include interest groups that just helped get him elected.
Rinse and repeat.
CMS’s decision to no longer allow Medicaid 1115 waiver funding for workforce initiatives will challenge state efforts to recruit and retain safety-net clinicians. | Forefront
Yara A. Halasa-Rappel, et al. | @ForHealthCnsltg
healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377…
David Ditch retweeted
$43B to paper over your predictable policy mistakes, plus another $30B in "emergency" aid and tens of billions more from the "usual" farm subsidies.
Insanity.
"It was the second time in two years that the president authorized billions of dollars in bailout money for farmers harmed by his administration’s policies" nytimes.com/2026/10/20/busin…
David Ditch retweeted
That will bring direct payments to farmers up to $55 billion this year.
For perspective, total value added for the entire farm industry was $204 billion last year.
So taxpayers are sending farmers about one-quarter of the value they add to the economy this year.
Harvest relief for America’s farmers.
Today, @POTUS and @SecRollins announced the Harvest Fuel Relief Program — making $8 BILLION available for one-time payments to farmers facing higher costs and market disruptions.
Here’s what that means:
➡️ Payments to help cover a portion of estimated losses for the 2026 crop year.
➡️ Payment amounts based on planted acres, production costs, crop yields, and prices.
➡️ Row crop payment rates announced in November, with details for other eligible commodities to follow.
➡️ Application will be available online using a Login.gov account that is connected to USDA.
🔗 usda.gov/about-usda/news/pre…
David Ditch retweeted
VA outlays jumped from $70 billion in 2005 to $377 billion in 2025, and its share of federal spending nearly doubled.
@USCBO projects $643 billion by 2036.📷
The 2022 PACT Act, a benefit expansion without offsets, “added $277 billion to deficits over 10 years.”
David Ditch retweeted
🧵This week’s Debt Digest:
• Social Security’s payroll tax cap rises again
• 5% Treasury yields preview a debt crisis
• VA spending outpaces every other agency
• Auto-enrolling low-income workers in retirement accounts backfires
• DOGE alumni cash in
👇
"Yet Weber credits all the stimulus for the rapid recovery while largely absolving it of the ensuing inflation. The same dollars, apparently, could stimulate production but not prices — a convenient distinction for which the book supplies no explanation."
‘Anti-fascist economics’ argues that the recent inflation bred support for authoritarianism. Unfortunately, it flubs what caused most of the inflation. wapo.st/4sdEOrT
David Ditch retweeted
"By needlessly politicizing air traffic control, both parties unwittingly make the case for privatization."
@PostOpinions
washingtonpost.com/opinions/…
