Right of Center America


Book Description

Right of Center America describes where America's federal budget and national debt are today and details how they can be brought under control. This book is not about ideological battles. It is not about the Right vs. Left. It does not rehash the same tired arguments about spending reductions versus tax increases. Instead it provides simple, detailed solutions to reduce the federal budget and national debt. These solutions involve both decreasing some and increasing other federal department's budgets and cutting some and increasing other taxes. Some recommendations you might have heard before, but most are new ideas, especially when dealing with America's biggest challenges.In addition to addressing the federal budget and national debt, Right of Center America also solves the biggest challenges facing America.1) An energy plan that drastically reduces America's dependency on foreign oil AND idles all coal, petroleum, and gas fueled power plants over the next 45 years.2) An education plan ensures EVERY American has access to the best possible education.3) Health Care reform that actually decreases the COST of Health Care by more than 20 percent and provides insurance coverage for those Americans that cannot afford it.4) Economic and tax policy that will spur long-term investment in AMERICAN companies.5) Entitlement reform that GUARANTEES safety-net programs, Social Security, and Medicare benefits.6) A reigning in of defense and foreign policy spending.7) Common sense immigration reform with a secure border and work-to-citizenship visas.8) Election and judicial reform that increase government transparency and turnover.Product Description:How can the U.S. decrease its national debt by 60 percent over the next twenty years while solving the most pressing challenges of today? Many books explain the problems presented by the current U.S. fiscal federal budget crisis, but none provide a comprehensive proposal to correct it. Right of Center America not only details the federal budget, it provides a specific plan that eliminates the federal deficit and reduces the national debt. The book details a strategy of how federal programs should be evaluated and the resulting analysis of this review.Right of Center America shows what America can do when it is fiscally responsible. Detailed, innovative plans are presented that would fix America's biggest challenges. Entitlements are made solvent. Health care costs are reduced and insurance coverage is provided for the poor. Every American is guaranteed the best public education by empowering both the teacher and the parent. Illegal immigration is curtailed. An energy plan is detailed that drastically reduces the use of petroleum and coal over the next 30 years. A fiscally responsible foreign policy is introduced. Common sense economic, tax, election, and judicial reforms are presented.These challenges are solved while reducing the deficit and without massive tax increases. Nowhere else will you find such creative, simple, and feasible solutions. Right of Center America is written for those Americans who are not ideologically tied to a political party. This book focuses on fiscal matters and does not delve into social issues. This biggest problems facing America today, the problems that will cripple the next generation of Americans, are fiscal issues.With a national debt exceeding $13 trillion, an annual federal budget deficit close to $500 billion, and interest payments approaching $500 billion per year, this book is a must read.If you only read one chapter of my book, please read chapter seven. I provide detailed examples on how to reduce the cost of health care by a conservative 21% without the need for federally managed health care system. In fact, my plan would actually result in a reduction of health care costs by more than a third, but I only use worst-case scenarios in my figures. More importantly, I believe this could be a bipartisan plan that both parties could support.




Balanced Budgets and American Politics


Book Description

A topical issue but hardly a new one, the concern for balancing the federal budget has been a perennial source of conflict in American political life. In Balanced Budgets and American Politics, James Savage explores the causes and development of the nation's preoccupation with this issue. Savage argues that the American fascination with the idea of balancing the federal budget is deeply rooted and reflects more than a contemporary concern about interest rates, inflation, or even the outcome of recent budget battles. His analysis demonstrates the considerable influence that the principle budget balancing has had on politics and public policy from 1690 through Ronald Reagan's first term as president.




The Politics of Bad Ideas


Book Description

This highly anticipated addition to the "Great Questions in Politics" series offers a provocative argument about the persistence of bad ideas in shaping American economic policy. The result of a collaboration between political scientist Bryan D. Jones and economist Walter Williams, The Politics of Bad Ideas is indispensable reading for any study of American government, public policy, or economic and budgetary analysis. The Politics of Bad Ideas examines why, over the last quarter century, bad economic ideas -- such as cutting taxes without cutting spending -- have become so influential in shaping government policies. Using in-depth research and trenchant political and economic analysis, the book explores why those bad ideas continue to survive despite overwhelming evidence that they in fact cause damage to the federal government's long-term fiscal stability and the American economy.




America's Fiscal Constitution


Book Description

What would Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Truman, and Eisenhower have done about today's federal debt crisis? America's Fiscal Constitution tells the remarkable story of fiscal heroes who imposed clear limits on the use of federal debt, limits that for two centuries were part of an unwritten constitution. Those national leaders borrowed only for extraordinary purposes and relied on well-defined budget practices to balance federal spending and revenues. That traditional fiscal constitution collapsed in 2001. Afterward -- for the first time in history -- federal elected officials cut taxes during war, funded permanent new programs entirely with debt, grew dependent on foreign creditors, and claimed that the economy could not thrive without routine federal borrowing. For most of the nation's history, conservatives fought to restrain the growth of government by insisting that new programs be paid for with taxation, while progressives sought to preserve opportunities for people on the way up by balancing budgets. Virtually all mainstream politicians recognized that excessive debt could jeopardize private investment and national independence. With original scholarship and the benefit of experience in finance and public service, Bill White dispels common budget myths and distills practical lessons from the nation's five previous spikes in debt. America's Fiscal Constitution offers an objective and hopeful guide for people trying to make sense of the nation's current, most severe, debt crisis and its impact on their lives and our future.







Comeback America


Book Description

He's one of America's most capable, canny, candid, and independent financial experts. Now David M. Walker sounds a call to action. Comeback America is a tough-minded, innovative, inspiring guide to help us avoid the approaching economic abyss and put the country back on track again. As comptroller general of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO)—"the nation's top auditor"—Walker warned Congress and the administration as the federal surplus became a giant deficit under George W. Bush. As president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, he now works full-time to raise public awareness regarding mounting debt burdens being imposed on future generations. Comeback America is his crucial manifesto, a way for President Obama to end out-of-control government spending and reform our tax, retirement, health care, defense, and other systems—before it's too late. Walker believes that by 2030, absent significant reforms to current government programs and policies, federal taxes could double from current levels, meaning less money and poorer education for kids—which will hurt families along with our nation's economic strength and position in the world. If our foreign creditors—such as China—decide to buy fewer of our Treasury bonds, interest rates will rise and cars and homes will become less affordable. But it doesn't have to be that way. Comeback America shows how we can return to our founding principles of fiscal responsibility and stewardship for future generations. The book includes bold ideas to control spending, save Social Security, dramatically alter Medicare, and simplify the tax code—all taking into account the Obama Administration's current efforts, which receive never-before-published assessments both complimentary and critical. Nonpartisan, nonideological, and filled with a love of the country its esteemed author has spent his life serving, Comeback America is a book for anyone interested in America's economic future—in other words, a book everyone should read.




Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis


Book Description

The recent recession has brought fiscal policy back to the forefront, with economists and policy makers struggling to reach a consensus on highly political issues like tax rates and government spending. At the heart of the debate are fiscal multipliers, whose size and sensitivity determine the power of such policies to influence economic growth. Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis focuses on the effects of fiscal stimuli and increased government spending, with contributions that consider the measurement of the multiplier effect and its size. In the face of uncertainty over the sustainability of recent economic policies, further contributions to this volume discuss the merits of alternate means of debt reduction through decreased government spending or increased taxes. A final section examines how the short-term political forces driving fiscal policy might be balanced with aspects of the long-term planning governing monetary policy. A direct intervention in timely debates, Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis offers invaluable insights about various responses to the recent financial crisis.




Deficit Politics in the United States


Book Description

From the clashes between Federalists and Republicans in the 1790s until today, partisan battles over taxing, spending, and public debt have shaped American political development. These battles were formerly constrained by fiscal norms that mandated balanced budgets and low debt. In his Farewell Address, President George Washington counseled the nation to "cherish public credit" by using "it as sparingly as possible". In the 1980s, however, tax cuts and spending increases created large structural deficits and much higher debt levels. With only a brief interruption in the late 1990s, deficit politics has been a mainstay ever since. Over this period, the Republican Party has passed large tax cuts but failed to retrench the large entitlement programs that continue to raise spending. Likewise, the Democratic Party has expanded the domestic role of government but has abandoned the broad-based taxation it supported in the 1990s. Funding their domestic agenda with matching revenues is now as unappealing for Democrats as entitlement cutbacks are for Republicans, contributing to the current stalemate of Republican tax policy, Democratic spending policy, and soaring deficits and debt. The economic risks this entails are serious, yet an end to the era of deficit politics is nowhere in sight.




Debt and Taxes


Book Description