|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Spending Chic
| Article
# : |
20471 |
|
|
Section : |
BOOK WORLD
|
| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1992 |
2,641 Words |
| Author
: |
Edward Hudgins
Edward Hudgins is the deputy director of economic studies at
the Heritage Foundation. |
THE CULTURE OF SPENDING
James L. Payne
San Francisco: ICS Press, 1991
225 pp., $24.95
The American public watched incredulously in late 1990 as George Bush and Congress passed a huge tax and spending package, supposedly to deal with the projected $160 billion budget deficit. As a result, the budget deficit has reached $350 billion. The alleged $500 billion spending "cut" over five years, in fact, is a spending increase from $1.29 trillion to $1.52 trillion. For each new dollar going into the Treasury from the tax hike, the federal government hikes spending by over $2. As a result of these policies, the country wallows in recession.
Political observers are aghast at this seeming economic suicide. Can policymakers, they ask, be this economically incompetent? Or are they all simply narrow, self-serving power grabbers, seeking to preserve their own political hides with a public-be-damned attitude?
In The Culture of Spending, James Payne offers an illuminating and insightful examination of an important aspect--he would say, the most important aspect--of the fiscal crisis in Washington. His thesis is that members of Congress and other policymakers are exposed almost exclusively to a political culture that promotes higher government spending and that rarely offers encouragement and support to those who exercise restraint. Payne offers a well-written, detailed analysis of this phenomenon, backing his contentions not with empty rhetoric but rather with empirical facts. He considers alternative theories concerning the causes of the spending crisis, attempting to test them against his own thesis.
And the implications of Payne's book are quite disturbing. It suggests that the system of checks and balances in Washington has broken down and that a manifestation of this is the spending crisis. Citizens elect members of Congress believing that a major part of their job is to objectively review public expenditures to determine how much of taxpayers' money must be spent on what programs to actually serve the public interest. The voter, however, will find that this belief is a myth from ancient high school textbooks. This sort of rational deliberation simply does not take place. There are no institutional checks on the spending spree in Washington that is draining the taxpayers' pockets and the economy dry.
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
