The sixteen-trillion-dollar mistake
Subtitle: how the U.S. bungled its national priorities from the New Deal to the present
By: Bruce S. Jansson.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 492
Subjects: Human services -- United States -- Finance; Government spending policy -- United States; United States -- Appropriations and expenditures; United States -- Politics and government -- 20th century
Description: "This book is the first analysis of American national priorities to link social policy, military policy, tax policy, and national politics in a far-reaching critique of the way the United States expends its national resources. By chronicling the failed priorities of eleven presidencies over a seventy-three year period (1931-2004), Jansson meticulously examines how each administration struggled to prioritize its share of the $56 trillion spent over that time.

However, presidents only propose budgets, while Congress actually crafts budget and tax legislation. Jansson's research analyzes many of the problems created by this usually contentious relationship between the president and Congress: exorbitant military expenditures, corporate welfare, tax breaks for affluent Americans, interest payments on excessive debt, and pork-barrel spending.

In identifying $16 trillion the United States wasted during the past seven decades, The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake points the way for greater citizen surveillance of the federal budget and affords average citizens a stronger voice in determining national priorities."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [439]-464) and index.