Deficits, Debt, and the New Politics of Tax Policy

Ippolito provides a historical account of US tax policy that emphasizes the relationship between taxes and budget components.

Dennis S. Ippolito (Author)

9781107017276, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 November 2012

302 pages, 2 b/w illus. 28 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.61 kg

'Dennis S. Ippolito's Deficits, Debt, and the New Politics of Tax Policy provides a refreshing update and a very important reminder that the United States federal government's financial situation is both insecure in its substance and perhaps woefully inadequate in its ability to respond to structural problems arising in the budget and tax systems. … The strength of this volume lies in its ability to, in one concise book, integrate the problems, historical and current, in both budgeting and taxation.' John F. Witte, Congress and the Presidency

The Constitution grants Congress the power 'to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises'. From the First Congress until today, conflicts over the size, role and taxing power of government have been at the heart of national politics. This book provides a comprehensive historical account of US tax policy that emphasizes the relationship between taxes and other budget components. It explains how wars, changing conceptions of the domestic role of government, and beliefs about deficits and debt have shaped the modern tax system. The contemporary focus of this book is the partisan battle over budget policy that began in the 1960s and triggered the disconnect between taxes and spending that has plagued the budget ever since. With the US government now facing its most serious deficit and debt challenge in the modern era, partisan debate over taxation is almost completely divorced from fiscal realities.

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.

Subject Areas: Taxation [KFFD1], Political economy [KCP], Political parties [JPL]