SAMPLE EMAIL QUESTIONS

 

• Rubin states that "budgets provide a powerful tool of accountability to citizens who want to know how the government is spending their money…." Does this assume too much interest or capability on the part of the typical citizen?
  
• Does the Congress, in the case of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) or the California Legislature, in the case of the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) really see these agencies as non-partisan? Isn't there always some value injected into an analysis?
  
• Where would budgeting be without the use of rational models?
  
• Given the lack of interest by many elected officials in balancing the budget unless it serves their own political ends, the inability and unwillingness of the media to fully report on the ramifications of budget issues, and the relative disinterest and lack of knowledge of Americans regarding government in general, including budget complexities, how do we get to Kettl's goal of "challenging" leaders to appeal to a higher purpose to serve the broad public interest?
  
• By the end of the book, Kettl has made it known that he believes politics to be the main source of budgetary problems for the federal government. If it is so obvious that all of the budgetary problems can be solved by members of Congress and the President only if they are willing to make hard decisions (that will upset specific groups of people), why have we turned to policy solutions like Gramm-Rudman-Hollings and the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990? Or are they really political solutions in disguise?
  
• Why is a central theme to revenue collection that economic growth is good because additional revenues are available? Do we have to keep feeding economic growth? Shouldn't the goal be a revenue and expenditure system that sustains itself and meets society's values?
  
• Given the fact that income taxes and property taxes are progressive, while sales taxes and user fees are regressive, what accounts for Californians' opposition to the former and preference for the latter? Is it greed by wealthier (and more political influential) residents or simply a lack of awareness of the inequity of regressive taxes?
  
• There seem to be three primary competing variables with respect to taxes: uniformity, fairness, and market incentives. How can we possibly maximize these competing variables?