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The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake: How the U.S. Bungled Its National
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The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake: How the U.S. Bungled Its National Priorities from the New Deal to the Present Hardback - 2001

by Bruce Jansson

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Reader reviews for The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake: How the U.S. Bungled Its National Priorities from the New Deal to the Present

From the publisher

Choices about budget priorities are arguably the most important made by the federal government, profoundly affecting the well-being of citizens. Bruce Jansson documents how presidents from FDR to Clinton have made ill-advised choices that wasted trillions of dollars. Going beyond charges of corruption or bureaucratic waste, the book is an eye-opening expos revealing innumerable useless projects (military as well as civilian), unnecessary tax concessions, and the use of interest payments to cover deficit spending, among other costly mistakes. Using Office of Management and Budget projections through 2004, Jansson shows how the madness continues-and how an informed electorate can put an end to it.

First line

Every nation must decide how much to tax its private wealth and how to spend the resulting revenues.

From the jacket flap

CHOICES ABOUT NATIONAL priorities are arguably the most important made by the federal government, profoundly affecting the well-being of citizens. Bruce S. Jansson documents how presidents, from FDR to Clinton, have made questionable choices that wasted trillions of dollars. Going beyond charges of corruption or bureaucratic waste, the book is an eye-opening expose that reveals innumerable useless projects (military as well as civilian), unnecessary tax concessions, and the use of interest payments to cover deficit spending, among other costly mistakes. Using U.S. Office of Management and Budget projections through 2004, Jansson shows how the madness continues -- and how an informed electorate can put an end to it.

This book is the first analysis of American national priorities to link social policy, military policy, tax policy, and national politics in a far-reaching critique of the way the United States expends its national resources. By chronicling the failed priorities of eleven presidencies over a seventy-three year period (1931-2004), Jansson meticulously examines how each administration struggled to prioritize its share of the $56 trillion spent over that time. However, presidents only propose budgets, while Congress actually crafts budget and tax legislation. Jansson's research analyzes many of the problems created by this usually contentious relationship between the president and Congress: exorbitant military expenditures, corporate welfare, tax breaks for affluent Americans, interest payments on excessive debt, and pork-barrel spending. In identifying $16 trillion the United States wasted during the past seven decades, The Sixteen -Trillion-Dollar Mistake points the way forgreater citizen surveillance of the federal budget and affords average citizens a stronger voice in determining national priorities.

Details

  • Title The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake: How the U.S. Bungled Its National Priorities from the New Deal to the Present
  • Author Bruce Jansson
  • Binding Hardback
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 496
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Columbia University Press, New York
  • Publication date 2001-02-22
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Illustrated
  • ISBN 9780231114325 / 023111432X
  • Weight 1.86 lbs (0.84 kg)
  • Dimensions 9 x 6 x 1.25 in (22.86 x 15.24 x 3.18 cm)
  • Age range 22 to UP years
  • Grade levels 17 - UP
  • Reading level 1710
  • Category Politics / Current Events
  • Library of Congress subjects United States - Appropriations and, United States - Politics and government -
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 00060323
  • Dewey Decimal Code 336

Media reviews

Citations

  • Booklist, 03/01/2001, Page 1211
  • Choice, 07/01/2001, Page 2038
  • Publishers Weekly, 02/26/2001, Page 68

About the author

Bruce S. Jansson is the author of Social Policy: From Theory to Political Practice, The Reluctant Welfare State, and many other books and articles on social policy and welfare. He teaches at the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.

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THE SIXTEEN-TRILLION-DOLLAR MISTAKE: How the U.S. Bungled Its National Priorities for the New Deal to the Present

by Jansson, Bruce S

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New York: Columbia University Press (2001), 492pp, illus. w/ charts & graphs, usual lib. markings, slight shelfwear to cover, slight edgewear to dj.. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good -/Very Good -. Ex-Library.
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by Bruce S. Jansson

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New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. HC. fine w/fine dustjacket (hardcover). ISBN 023111432X "Choices about national priorities are arguably the most important made by the federal government, profoundly affecting the well-being of citizens. Bruce S. Jansson documents how presidents, from FDR to Clinton, have made questionable choices that wasted trillions of dollars. Going beyond the charges of corruption or bureaucratic waste, the book is an eye-opening expose that reveals innumerable useless projects (military as well as civilian), unnecessary tax concessions, and the use of interest payments to cover deficit spending, among other costly mistakes." 492pp.
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The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake: How the U.S. Bungled Its National Priorities from the New Deal to the Present

by Jansson, Bruce S.

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The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake

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The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake
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The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake

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The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake : How the U. S. Bungled Its National Priorities from the New Deal to the Present

by Jansson, Bruce

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New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. INSCRIBED & SIGNED by the AUTHOR. Very Good condition in a Very Good dust jacket. NO chips. NO tears. 2001. First Printing of the First Edition with complete number row (10 987654321) on the copyright page. Bound in the original pale gray boards, stamped in bright gold on the spine. From the dust jacket: "Choices about budget priorities are arguably the most important made by the federal government, profoundly affecting the well-being of citizens. Bruce S. Jansson documents how presidents from FDR to Clinton have made questionable choices that wasted trillions of dollars. Going beyond charges of corruption or bureaucratic waste, the book is an eye-opening exposé that reveals innumerable useless projects (military as well as civilian), unnecessary tax concessions, and the use of interest payments to cover deficit spending, among other costly mistakes. Using U.S. Office of Management and Budget projections through 2004, Jansson shows how… Read more
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The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake
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The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake

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The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake: How the U.S. Bungled Its National Priorities from the New Deal to the Present

by Jansson, Bruce

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