Pathways to Fiscal Reform in the United States

Experts discuss fiscal reforms intended to address the U.S. debt problem, examining entitlements, federal budgetary processes, and individual and corporate income taxes. The United States and other advanced economies in the Eurozone and elsewhere face severe fiscal problems. The United States is on an unsustainable dynamic path; absent corrective fiscal policies, federal deficits and debts relative to gross domestic product will continue to increase dramatically. In this book, experts consider possible fiscal reforms aimed at addressing the debt problem, focusing on entitlement programs, budgetary issues and processes, and individual and corporate income tax reform. The contributors address such topics as the interaction of rising health care costs and the level of federal expenditures; alternative methods for evaluating the fiscal health and sustainability of Social Security; the effectiveness of budgetary constraints imposed on the states, including balanced budget amendments and debt ceilings; approaches to curtailing individual tax expenditures and methods for increasing the progressivity of the tax system; and the effects of traditional base-broadening, rate-reducing corporate income tax reforms. Contributors Henry J. Aaron, James Alm, Rosanne Altshuler, Daniel Baneman, Joe Barnes, Robert J. Carroll, Ruud A. de Mooij, John W. Diamond, Jagadeesh Gokhale, Jane G. Gravelle, Peter R. Hartley, Vivian Ho, John Kitchen, Edward D. Kleinbard, John Mutti, Thomas S. Neubig, Mark V. Pauly, Rudolph G. Penner, Andrew J. Rettenmaier, Shanna Rose, Joseph Rosenberg, Daniel Smith, Eric Toder, Alan D. Viard, Roberton Williams, George R. Zodrow