Publisher's Synopsis
This descriptive, nonpartisan, and ideologically neutral approach to the U.S. federal budget provides a clear and detailed explanation of the intricacies of the budget, its history, and the institutional details that create it. Red Ink offers a complete guide to the federal government's budget, its deficit, and its debt. Clear and practical discussions of taxes, entitlements, welfare, Social Security, Medicare, agricultural subsidies, trust funds, budget enforcement, and the politics of the deficit and deficit-reduction are all included. This is the first book to offer a complete survey from the history of the deficit to modern budget enforcement. It discusses topical issues, such as welfare and Medicare reform, and the controversies of the future, including the projected depletion of the Social Security trust funds. The actual line-item budget, including tax sources, is listed to demonstrate where federal money is spent and where it comes from. The book traces how spending and tax bills originate and follows them as they make their waythrough a maze of Congressional procedures, regulations, and protocols.;In addition to students of public finance and macroeconomics, Red Ink is useful to anyone with an interest in the machinations of the federal budget.
