Setting National Priorities: The 2000 Election and Beyond - Tapa blanda

If the subject of influence in Washington interests you, this series of books deserves your respectful attention...it has changed the ways in which American politicians think about the budget. - The Washington Post For the first time in more than four decades, the federal budget has registered two consecutive surpluses, and the need to reduce the deficit is not casting a pall over the policy debate. This new, highly accessible book examines the policy options that are available in this new environment to address the new and recurring challenges that face the nation. The book, which continues the Brookings Institution's highly acclaimed and influential Setting National Priorities series, will serve as a guide for understanding many of the complex issues that will be discussed during the presidential and congressional campaigns of 2000. The book centers around three themes: providing opportunity in the domestic arena, restoring confidence in government, and adapting to the post-Cold War international environment. It tackles such critical issues as Medicare and social security, tax reform, and foreign policy spending, as well as many areas not included in previous editions; namely, education, urban problems, the environment, trade, government renewal and reform, crime and drugs, and families. In addition to the editors, the contributers are Gary Burtless, I. M. Destler, John J. DiIulio Jr., William Gale, Bruce Katz, Donald F. Kettl, Paul C. Light, Thomas E. Mann, Michael O'Hanlon, Paul R. Portney, Diane Ravitch, Isabel V. Sawhill, and James Sly.

This book will serve as a guide for understanding and evaluating proposals of the next Congress and the Clinton administration. Edited by Robert D. Reischauer, one of the nation's most noted budget experts, the book covers such critical issues as whether any measures to stimulate economic growth can also reduce the budget deficit, how to reduce domestic discretionary spending, how to restructure medicare, how much to lower the safety net, how to reshape national security for the post-cold war world, whether to transform the tax system, and how to prepare for the retirement of the baby boom generation. This book will be extremely useful for citizens eager to make sense out of the post-election rhetoric, journalists attempting to explain the issues at play, and students of public policy, public health, political science, and economics.