What's in a word? Plenty, when it's a word such as ���axes,������pending,���or ���eficits���that pervades Washington political debate despite lacking coherent economic content. The United
States is moving toward a possible catastrophic fiscal collapse. The country may not get there, but the risk is unmistakable and growing. The ���iscal language���of taxes, spending, and
deficits has played a huge and underappreciated role in the decisions that have pushed the nation in this dangerous direction. This book proposes a better fiscal language for U.S. budgetary
policy, rooted in economic fundamentals such as wealth distribution and resource allocation in lieu of ���axes���and ���pending���and in the use of multiple measures (such as the fiscal gap and
generational accounting) to replace misguided reliance on annual budget deficits.
