This article discusses issues regarding budget process rules in the context of the current pattern of rising fiscal deficits. It begins by explaining the premise that budget process rules have multiple objectives, and so must be judged according to multiple criteria. Prominent among those...

Describes the economic policymaking process in Congress, with particular reference to the current recession. Attempts to distinguish between how policy would be made in an ideal world, and how it is made in the world in which we live.

Assesses the post-tax-reform world, with a particular focus on key individual income tax issues.

The question at the heart of the capital gains tax debate is whether taxing some people at a different rate than others having the same income is appropriate. Those who justify such a preference base their arguments on the concepts of economic efficiency and fairness. However, recent experience...

This paper provides an interpretation of how U.S. politics dulls the awareness of policymakers as to the danger of the current fiscal-policy deadlock in Washington, which could set in motion vicious cycles that could not be reversed. It hypothetically extrapolates that behavior to show how it...