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9781139083621

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'Ippolito traces how wars, ideas about government size, and attitudes toward deficit finance shaped the US federal tax system. His impressive historic tableau, more descriptive than analytical, covers the Continental Congress (which had no taxing power) to the 2012 elections (when lawmakers lacked the courage to tax). Summing up: recommended. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and faculty.' J. L. Mikesell, Choice

The United States faces a predictable fiscal crisis of unprecedented magnitude, but democratic institutions and processes are standing in the way of confronting painful choices and making responsible fiscal policy. Dennis Ippolito's book is a comprehensive and authoritative treatment of how the world's leading democracy got to this impasse. It is fair-minded and even-handed about issues that are deeply divisive in a polarized political system. It is essential background reading for understanding the fiscal crisis in the United States. - William R. Keech, Duke University One of the foremost analysts of U.S. budget policy offers a new and insightful perspective on how spending, deficits, and debt have influenced governmental decision making on revenue levels and structural taxation. Dennis Ippolito's erudite but accessible study has immense value for scholars, policy makers, and concerned citizens seeking to understand how the U.S. fiscal state developed in the twentieth century and how it can come to terms with its problematic twenty-first-century future. - Iwan Morgan, University College London In this remarkably well-written and researched book, Dennis Ippolito expertly explores our nation's tax and spending decisions from colonial America through the New Deal, from Reagan to Obama. He carefully analyzes the difficult choices our political leaders now face if they want to bring the government's budgets back into balance. This is economic policy analysis and history at its best! - James D. Savage, University of Virginia

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Dennis S. Ippolito is Eugene McElvaney Professor of Political Science at Southern Methodist University. Among his previous books are Why Budgets Matter: Budget Policy and American Politics, Uncertain Legacies: Federal Budget Policy from Roosevelt through Reagan, Hidden Spending: The Politics of Federal Credit Programs, Congressional Spending, and The Budget and National Politics. He was awarded the 2010 Aaron B. Wildavsky Award for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement in the Field of Public Budgeting and Finance.

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