Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Part 1 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 2 The Why and How of Long-Term Budgeting
- Part 3 Labels and Policies across Budget Categories
- Part 4 Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Taxes, Spending, and the Size of Government
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Part 1 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 2 The Why and How of Long-Term Budgeting
- Part 3 Labels and Policies across Budget Categories
- Part 4 Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.
– George SantayanaAlice came to a fork in the road. “Which road do I take?” she asked. “Where do you want to go?”, responded the Cheshire cat. “I don't know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn't matter.”
– Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in WonderlandWhich Way Is Which?
Advocates of smaller government invariably call for tax cuts. If they are honest and principled, rather than just playing politics, they also advocate spending cuts. Advocates of a larger and more active government oppose them on both counts. It rarely occurs to either side that they may misunderstand the basic relationship here between means and ends – that is, between tax and spending cuts and the size of government. Stand-alone tax cuts, in particular, may actually lead to what is in substance a larger and more invasive government, even if fewer dollars observably travel back and forth.
Both sides ought to think back to the old childhood game Pin the Tail on the Donkey. In this game, you start out facing the donkey, pin and tail in hand, but, before you can go anywhere, you are blindfolded and rapidly spun around. You lose your bearings, and thus cannot simply plunge straight ahead with any confidence that you are going the right way.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006