This descriptive, nonpartisan, and ideologically neutral approach to the U.S. federal budget provides a clear and detailed explanation of the intricacies of the budget, its history, and the institutional details that create it. Red Ink offers a complete guide to the federal government's budget, its deficit, and its debt. Clear and practical discussions of taxes, entitlements, welfare, Social Security, Medicare, agricultural subsidies, trust funds, budget enforcement, and the politics of the deficit and deficit-reduction are all included.

This is the first book to offer a complete survey from the history of the deficit to modern budget enforcement. It discusses topical issues, such as welfare and Medicare reform, and the controversies of the future, including the projected depletion of the Social Security trust funds. The actual line-item budget, including tax sources, is listed to demonstrate where federal money is spent and where it comes from. The book traces how spending and tax bills originate and follows them as they make their waythrough a maze of Congressional procedures, regulations, and protocols. In addition to students of public finance and macroeconomics, Red Ink is useful to anyone with an interest in the machinations of the federal budget.

Key Features

* Includes over 120 tables and illustrations

* Features an extensive glossary of budget terms

* Contains a practical nuts and bolts approach to the U.S. federal budget

* Provides an annotated reading list for further research

* Uses a WWW link for budget updates and new data

"The deficit, public debt, trust funds, and entitlements--everyday topics, but frequently misunderstood. Gary Evans takes students of the budget process through an interesting and thought-provoking tour of components of the budget. Anyone who wants to understand current budget problems and entitlement reform in the United States should read this book."

--R. GLENN HUBBARD, RUSSELL L. CARSON Professor of Economics and Finance, Senior Vice Dean, Columbia Business School

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--R. GLENN HUBBARD, RUSSELL L. CARSON Professor of Economics and Finance, Senior Vice Dean, Columbia Business School

Medicare reform, and the controversies of the future, including the projected depletion of the Social Security trust funds. The actual line-item budget, including tax sources, is listed to demonstrate where federal money is spent and where it comes from. The book traces how spending and tax bills originate and follows them as they make their way through a maze of congressional procedures, regulations, and protocols.

etailed explanation of the intricacies of the budget, its history, and the institutional details that create it. Red Ink offers a complete guide to the federal government's budget, its deficit, and its debt. Clear and practical discussions of taxes, entitlements, welfare, Social Security, Medicare, agricultural subsidies, trust funds, budget enforcement, and the politics of the deficit and deficit reduction are included.

This book is the first to offer a complete survey from the history of the deficit to modern budget enforcement. It discusses topical issues, such as welfare and Medicare reform, and the controversies of the future, including the projected depletion of the Social Security trust funds. The actual line-item budget, including tax sources, is listed to demonstrate where federal money is spent and where it comes from. The book traces how spending and tax bills originate and follows them as they make their way through a maze of congressional procedures, regulations, and protocols.

Gary R. Evans is the co-principal of Bora Software, a corporation that specializes in automated cashflow models, and was the primary Programmer for the Bora Credit Evaluation and Cashflow Model used by the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to train bank regulators. Evans is the author of several books, including Macroeconomics (with Howard Sherman), and is a professor at Harvey Mudd College and the Peter F. Drucker Graduate Management Center. His area of specialty is fiscal and monetary policy and automated (computerized) information systems.

Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California

Selected as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1997 by CHOICE