Deficit Politics in the United States

Taxes, Spending and Fiscal Disconnect
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-0-367-76506-4
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales)

Buch, Englisch, 236 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 513 g

Reihe: Europa Economic Perspectives

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ippolito, Dennis S

Ippolito, Dennis

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Enzyklopädien, Nachschlagewerke, Wörterbücher
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Zentralregierung
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures and Tables

Preface

Chapter One: From Balanced Budgets to Deficit Politics

Chapter Two: From Deficit to Surplus—The Reagan-Clinton Transition

Chapter Three: From Surplus to Deficit—The George W. Bush Presidency

Chapter Four: Stabilizing the Deficit—The Obama Presidency

Chapter Five: Raising the Deficit—The Trump Presidency

Chapter Six: The Future of Deficit Politics—And Why It Matters

Selected Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Dennis S. Ippolito is the Eugene McElvaney Professor of Political Science at SMU. His most recent book on budget policy was a revised edition of Why Budgets Matter: Budget Policy and American Politics (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015), the first edition of which was published in 2003. Other books on budget policy include: Deficits, Debt, and the New Politics of Tax Policy (Cambridge, 2012); Budget Policy and the Future of Defense (National Defense University Press/Institute for National Strategic Studies, 1994); Uncertain Legacies: Federal Budget Policy from Roosevelt through Reagan (Virginia, 1990); Hidden Spending: The Politics of Federal Credit Programs (North Carolina, 1984); Congressional Spending (Cornell, 1981); and The Budget and National Politics (W.H. Freeman, 1978). In 2010, he received the Aaron B. Wildavsky Award for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement in Public Budgeting and Finance from the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management of the American Society for Public Administration.