'This is a terrific book. For Patashnik, the world of trust funds is a window into the complex and fascinating politics of trust and commitment. He shows how policy-makers wrestle with the challenging task of balancing the need to keep promises and the need to keep their options open. Imaginative, theoretically-informed and thoroughly-researched, Putting Trust in the US Budget is enormously instructive for students of public policy and American politics.' Paul Pierson, Harvard University

• 1. Introduction: trust funds and the politics of commitment; 2. Political transaction costs, feedback effects, and policy credibility; 3. Trust fund taxes vs general fund taxes; 4. Social security; 5. Medicare; 6. Highways; 7. Airports; 8. Superfund; 9. Barriers to trust fund adoption: the failed cases of energy security and lead abatement; 10. Conclusions: The structure and normative challenge of promise-keeping.

'This is a terrific book. For Patashnik, the world of trust funds is a window into the complex and fascinating politics of trust and commitment. He shows how policy-makers wrestle with the challenging task of balancing the need to keep promises and the need to keep their options open. Imaginative, theoretically-informed and thoroughly-researched, Putting Trust in the US Budget is enormously instructive for students of public policy and American politics.' Paul Pierson, Harvard University

• 1. Introduction: trust funds and the politics of commitment; 2. Political transaction costs, feedback effects, and policy credibility; 3. Trust fund taxes vs general fund taxes; 4. Social security; 5. Medicare; 6. Highways; 7. Airports; 8. Superfund; 9. Barriers to trust fund adoption: the failed cases of energy security and lead abatement; 10. Conclusions: The structure and normative challenge of promise-keeping.