Balanced Budgets and American Politics

Balanced Budgets and American Politics
Author: James Savage
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2019-05-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1501746227

A topical issue but hardly a new one, the concern for balancing the federal budget has been a perennial source of conflict in American political life. In Balanced Budgets and American Politics, James Savage explores the causes and development of the nation's preoccupation with this issue. Savage argues that the American fascination with the idea of balancing the federal budget is deeply rooted and reflects more than a contemporary concern about interest rates, inflation, or even the outcome of recent budget battles. His analysis demonstrates the considerable influence that the principle budget balancing has had on politics and public policy from 1690 through Ronald Reagan's first term as president.

Right of Center America

Right of Center America
Author: Andrew C. Best
Publisher: Andrew Best
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2010-08-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1450581668

Right of Center America describes where America's federal budget and national debt are today and details how they can be brought under control. This book is not about ideological battles. It is not about the Right vs. Left. It does not rehash the same tired arguments about spending reductions versus tax increases. Instead it provides simple, detailed solutions to reduce the federal budget and national debt. These solutions involve both decreasing some and increasing other federal department's budgets and cutting some and increasing other taxes. Some recommendations you might have heard before, but most are new ideas, especially when dealing with America's biggest challenges.In addition to addressing the federal budget and national debt, Right of Center America also solves the biggest challenges facing America.1) An energy plan that drastically reduces America's dependency on foreign oil AND idles all coal, petroleum, and gas fueled power plants over the next 45 years.2) An education plan ensures EVERY American has access to the best possible education.3) Health Care reform that actually decreases the COST of Health Care by more than 20 percent and provides insurance coverage for those Americans that cannot afford it.4) Economic and tax policy that will spur long-term investment in AMERICAN companies.5) Entitlement reform that GUARANTEES safety-net programs, Social Security, and Medicare benefits.6) A reigning in of defense and foreign policy spending.7) Common sense immigration reform with a secure border and work-to-citizenship visas.8) Election and judicial reform that increase government transparency and turnover.Product Description:How can the U.S. decrease its national debt by 60 percent over the next twenty years while solving the most pressing challenges of today? Many books explain the problems presented by the current U.S. fiscal federal budget crisis, but none provide a comprehensive proposal to correct it. Right of Center America not only details the federal budget, it provides a specific plan that eliminates the federal deficit and reduces the national debt. The book details a strategy of how federal programs should be evaluated and the resulting analysis of this review.Right of Center America shows what America can do when it is fiscally responsible. Detailed, innovative plans are presented that would fix America's biggest challenges. Entitlements are made solvent. Health care costs are reduced and insurance coverage is provided for the poor. Every American is guaranteed the best public education by empowering both the teacher and the parent. Illegal immigration is curtailed. An energy plan is detailed that drastically reduces the use of petroleum and coal over the next 30 years. A fiscally responsible foreign policy is introduced. Common sense economic, tax, election, and judicial reforms are presented.These challenges are solved while reducing the deficit and without massive tax increases. Nowhere else will you find such creative, simple, and feasible solutions. Right of Center America is written for those Americans who are not ideologically tied to a political party. This book focuses on fiscal matters and does not delve into social issues. This biggest problems facing America today, the problems that will cripple the next generation of Americans, are fiscal issues.With a national debt exceeding $13 trillion, an annual federal budget deficit close to $500 billion, and interest payments approaching $500 billion per year, this book is a must read.If you only read one chapter of my book, please read chapter seven. I provide detailed examples on how to reduce the cost of health care by a conservative 21% without the need for federally managed health care system. In fact, my plan would actually result in a reduction of health care costs by more than a third, but I only use worst-case scenarios in my figures. More importantly, I believe this could be a bipartisan plan that both parties could support.

America's Fiscal Constitution

America's Fiscal Constitution
Author: Bill White
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 577
Release: 2014-04-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1610393449

What would Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Truman, and Eisenhower have done about today's federal debt crisis? America's Fiscal Constitution tells the remarkable story of fiscal heroes who imposed clear limits on the use of federal debt, limits that for two centuries were part of an unwritten constitution. Those national leaders borrowed only for extraordinary purposes and relied on well-defined budget practices to balance federal spending and revenues. That traditional fiscal constitution collapsed in 2001. Afterward -- for the first time in history -- federal elected officials cut taxes during war, funded permanent new programs entirely with debt, grew dependent on foreign creditors, and claimed that the economy could not thrive without routine federal borrowing. For most of the nation's history, conservatives fought to restrain the growth of government by insisting that new programs be paid for with taxation, while progressives sought to preserve opportunities for people on the way up by balancing budgets. Virtually all mainstream politicians recognized that excessive debt could jeopardize private investment and national independence. With original scholarship and the benefit of experience in finance and public service, Bill White dispels common budget myths and distills practical lessons from the nation's five previous spikes in debt. America's Fiscal Constitution offers an objective and hopeful guide for people trying to make sense of the nation's current, most severe, debt crisis and its impact on their lives and our future.

The Politics of Budget Control

The Politics of Budget Control
Author: John A. Marini
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1992
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780844817170

First Published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis

Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis
Author: Alberto Alesina
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 596
Release: 2013-06-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 022601844X

The recent recession has brought fiscal policy back to the forefront, with economists and policy makers struggling to reach a consensus on highly political issues like tax rates and government spending. At the heart of the debate are fiscal multipliers, whose size and sensitivity determine the power of such policies to influence economic growth. Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis focuses on the effects of fiscal stimuli and increased government spending, with contributions that consider the measurement of the multiplier effect and its size. In the face of uncertainty over the sustainability of recent economic policies, further contributions to this volume discuss the merits of alternate means of debt reduction through decreased government spending or increased taxes. A final section examines how the short-term political forces driving fiscal policy might be balanced with aspects of the long-term planning governing monetary policy. A direct intervention in timely debates, Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis offers invaluable insights about various responses to the recent financial crisis.

The Moment of Truth the Report of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform - Debt Commission Report - December 2010

The Moment of Truth the Report of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform - Debt Commission Report - December 2010
Author: National Commission on Fiscal Responsibi
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
Total Pages: 66
Release: 2012-04-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781475214130

This is the report of the Debt Commission of the United States Government. President Barack Obama commissioned a bipartisan panel to investigate the staggering National Debt and annual deficit of the United States Federal Government. The terrifying findings of that commission were published in this report in December 2010. It is titled "The Moment of Truth." Throughout our nation's history, Americans have found the courage to do right by our children's future. Deep down, every American knows we face a moment of truth once again. We cannot play games or put off hard choices any longer. Without regard to party, we have a patriotic duty to keep the promise of America to give our children and grandchildren a better life. Our challenge is clear and inescapable: America cannot be great if we go broke. Our businesses will not be able to grow and create jobs, and our workers will not be able to compete successfully for the jobs of the future without a plan to get this crushing debt burden off our backs. Ever since the economic downturn, families across the country have huddled around kitchen tables, making tough choices about what they hold most dear and what they can learn to live without. They expect and deserve their leaders to do the same. The American people are counting on us to put politics aside, pull together not pull apart, and agree on a plan to live within our means and make America strong for the long haul. As members of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, we spent the past eight months studying the same cold, hard facts. Together, we have reached these unavoidable conclusions: The problem is real. The solution will be painful. There is no easy way out. Everything must be on the table. And Washington must lead. We come from different backgrounds, represent different regions, and belong to different parties, but we share a common belief that America's long-term fiscal gap is unsustainable and, if left unchecked, will see our children and grandchildren living in a poorer, weaker nation. In the words of Senator Tom Coburn, "We keep kicking the can down the road, and splashing the soup all over our grandchildren." Every modest sacrifice we refuse to make today only forces far greater sacrifices of hope and opportunity upon the next generation. Over the course of our deliberations, the urgency of our mission has become all the more apparent. The contagion of debt that began in Greece and continues to sweep through Europe shows us clearly that no economy will be immune. If the U.S. does not put its house in order, the reckoning will be sure and the devastation severe. The President and the leaders of both parties in both chambers of Congress asked us to address the nation's fiscal challenges in this decade and beyond. We have worked to offer an aggressive, fair, balanced, and bipartisan proposal - a proposal as serious as the problems we face. None of us likes every element of our plan, and each of us had to tolerate provisions we previously or presently oppose in order to reach a principled compromise. We were willing to put our differences aside to forge a plan because our nation will certainly be lost without one. We do not pretend to have all the answers. We offer our plan as the starting point for a serious national conversation in which every citizen has an interest and all should have a say. Our leaders have a responsibility to level with Americans about the choices we face, and to enlist the ingenuity and determination of the American people in rising to the challenge. We believe neither party can fix this problem on its own, and both parties have a responsibility to do their part. The American people are a long way ahead of the political system in recognizing that now is the time to act.

Deficit Politics in the United States

Deficit Politics in the United States
Author: Dennis S Ippolito
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2022-02-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000538990

From the clashes between Federalists and Republicans in the 1790s until today, partisan battles over taxing, spending, and public debt have shaped American political development. These battles were formerly constrained by fiscal norms that mandated balanced budgets and low debt. In his Farewell Address, President George Washington counseled the nation to "cherish public credit" by using "it as sparingly as possible". In the 1980s, however, tax cuts and spending increases created large structural deficits and much higher debt levels. With only a brief interruption in the late 1990s, deficit politics has been a mainstay ever since. Over this period, the Republican Party has passed large tax cuts but failed to retrench the large entitlement programs that continue to raise spending. Likewise, the Democratic Party has expanded the domestic role of government but has abandoned the broad-based taxation it supported in the 1990s. Funding their domestic agenda with matching revenues is now as unappealing for Democrats as entitlement cutbacks are for Republicans, contributing to the current stalemate of Republican tax policy, Democratic spending policy, and soaring deficits and debt. The economic risks this entails are serious, yet an end to the era of deficit politics is nowhere in sight.

The Politics Industry

The Politics Industry
Author: Katherine M. Gehl
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2020-06-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1633699242

Leading political innovation activist Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter bring fresh perspective, deep scholarship, and a real and actionable solution, Final Five Voting, to the grand challenge of our broken political and democratic system. Final Five Voting has already been adopted in Alaska and is being advanced in states across the country. The truth is, the American political system is working exactly how it is designed to work, and it isn't designed or optimized today to work for us—for ordinary citizens. Most people believe that our political system is a public institution with high-minded principles and impartial rules derived from the Constitution. In reality, it has become a private industry dominated by a textbook duopoly—the Democrats and the Republicans—and plagued and perverted by unhealthy competition between the players. Tragically, it has therefore become incapable of delivering solutions to America's key economic and social challenges. In fact, there's virtually no connection between our political leaders solving problems and getting reelected. In The Politics Industry, business leader and path-breaking political innovator Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter take a radical new approach. They ingeniously apply the tools of business analysis—and Porter's distinctive Five Forces framework—to show how the political system functions just as every other competitive industry does, and how the duopoly has led to the devastating outcomes we see today. Using this competition lens, Gehl and Porter identify the most powerful lever for change—a strategy comprised of a clear set of choices in two key areas: how our elections work and how we make our laws. Their bracing assessment and practical recommendations cut through the endless debate about various proposed fixes, such as term limits and campaign finance reform. The result: true political innovation. The Politics Industry is an original and completely nonpartisan guide that will open your eyes to the true dynamics and profound challenges of the American political system and provide real solutions for reshaping the system for the benefit of all. THE INSTITUTE FOR POLITICAL INNOVATION The authors will donate all royalties from the sale of this book to the Institute for Political Innovation.

Economics, Politics, and American Public Policy

Economics, Politics, and American Public Policy
Author: James J. Gosling
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2013-03-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0765637715

This text introduces students to the interrelationship of politics and economics in American public policymaking: how economic concerns have been legislated into law since Franklin Roosevelt's time and how politics (e.g., Washington gridlock) affects the economy and the making of public policy.