Deficits, debt, and the new politics of tax policy
By: Dennis S. Ippolito
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 282
ISBN-13: 9781107017276; 9781107641402
Subjects: Taxation; Public Finance; Fiscal policy; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Government / General; History
Description: "This book provides a comprehensive historical account of federal tax policy that emphasizes the relationship between taxes and other components of the budget"--

"Comprehensive: examines the historical development of the federal tax system; explains the relative importance of income taxes, payroll taxes, and other taxes in the modern era; and discusses the fairness, economic efficiency, and revenue-raising characteristics of federal tax policy - Policy-focused: analyzes federal tax policy in its budget policy context; emphasizes how decisionmaking on taxes is affected by spending policy (defense and domestic) and by fiscal policy (deficits and debt); focuses on the politics of tax policy as reflected in Democratic and Republican party differences - Timely: appraises the adequacy of the current federal tax system in terms of future national security and entitlement commitments and the enormous deficit and problems the federal government now faces; contends that neither party is being truthful about the higher revenue levels that will be needed to fund government without excessive deficits or debt; argues that the tax system is indeed 'broken' a"--
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: 1. A brief history of federal taxation; 2. The stable era - World War II to the 1960s; 3. Destabilizing tax policy - Vietnam and the 1970s; 4. The Reagan strategy - balancing low; 5. The Clinton strategy - balancing high; 6. Bush, Obama, and fiscal deadlock; 7. Reconnecting taxes and budgets.