Taxes, Spending, and the U.S. Government's March towards Bankruptcy [Paperback]

This book proposes a better fiscal language and understanding for US budgetary policy.This book proposes a better fiscal language for U.S. budgetary policy, rooted in economic fundamentals such as wealth distribution and resource allocation in lieu of ?taxes? and ?spending? and in the use of multiple measures (such as the fiscal gap and generational accounting) to replace misguided reliance on annual budget deficits.This book proposes a better fiscal language for U.S. budgetary policy, rooted in economic fundamentals such as wealth distribution and resource allocation in lieu of ?taxes? and ?spending? and in the use of multiple measures (such as the fiscal gap and generational accounting) to replace misguided reliance on annual budget deficits.What's in a word? Plenty, when it's a word such as ?taxes,? ?spending,? or ?deficits? that pervades Washington political debate despite lacking coherent economic content. The United States is moving toward a possible catastrophic fiscal collapse. The country may not get there, but the risk is unmistakable and growing. The ?fiscal language? of taxes, spending, and deficits has played a huge and underappreciated role in the decisions that have pushed the nation in this dangerous direction. This book proposes a better fiscal language for U.S. budgetary policy, rooted in economic fundamentals such as wealth distribution and resource allocation in lieu of ?taxes? and ?spending? and in the use of multiple measures (such as the fiscal gap and generational accounting) to replace misguided reliance on annual budget deficits.Part I. Labels and Consequences: The Failure of our Fiscal Language: 1. Fiscal language and the fiscal crisis; 2. Taxes, spending, and the size of government; 3. Fun and games with budget deficits; Part II. The Why and How of Long-Term Budgeting: 4. What are we talking about when we talk about budget deficits?; 5. Long-term measures in lieu of the budget deficit; 6. Fiscal gap politics; Part III. Labels and Policiesl3}