Taxes, Spending, and the U.S. Government's March towards Bankruptcy

Daniel N. Shaviro is Wayne Perry Professor of Taxation at New York University Law School, where he has taught since 1995. He previously served on the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School from 1987 to 1996. Professor Shaviro was a Legislation Attorney for the US Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation from 1984 to 1987, and worked on the landmark Tax Reform Act of 1986. His previous books include Who Should Pay for Medicare? (2004), Making Sense of Social Security Reform (2000), When Rules Change: An Economic and Political Look at Transition Relief and Retroactivity (2000), and Do Deficits Matter? (1997). Professor Shaviro has served as a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and chaired the Tax Sections of the American Association of Law Schools and the American Law and Economics Association. He has published articles in the Harvard Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Michigan Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and Tax Law Review. His blog Start Making Sense can be found at http://danshaviro.blogspot.com/.

“The words “fiscal policy” normally provoke only yawns from educated readers. But any indifference to the ticking time bombs that threaten the financial soundness of the modern social welfare state should be rudely interrupted by Daniel Shaviro's lucid and disturbing account of our long-term problem. With devastating accuracy he exposes the financial timidity and accounting double-talk that infects members of both political parties and makes a reasoned plea for corrective action—before it is too late.” -- Richard Epstein, University of Chicago

• Part I. Labels and Consequences: The Failure of our Fiscal Language: 1. Fiscal language and the fiscal crisis; 2. Taxes, spending, and the size of government; 3. Fun and games with budget deficits; Part II. The Why and How of Long-Term Budgeting: 4. What are we talking about when we talk about budget deficits?; 5. Long-term measures in lieu of the budget deficit; 6. Fiscal gap politics; Part III. Labels and Policies across Budget Categories: 7. Benign fictions? Describing social security and Medicare; 8. Tax expenditures; 9. Welfare, cash grants, and marginal rates; Part IV. Conclusion: 10. Some modest proposals.