"This book provides a comprehensive historical account of federal tax policy that emphasizes the relationship between taxes and other components of the budget"--

"Comprehensive: examines the historical development of the federal tax system; explains the relative importance of income taxes, payroll taxes, and other taxes in the modern era; and discusses the fairness, economic efficiency, and revenue-raising characteristics of federal tax policy - Policy-focused: analyzes federal tax policy in its budget policy context; emphasizes how decisionmaking on taxes is affected by spending policy (defense and domestic) and by fiscal policy (deficits and debt); focuses on the politics of tax policy as reflected in Democratic and Republican party differences - Timely: appraises the adequacy of the current federal tax system in terms of future national security and entitlement commitments and the enormous deficit and problems the federal government now faces; contends that neither party is being truthful about the higher revenue levels that will be needed to fund government without excessive deficits or debt; argues that the tax system is indeed 'broken' a"--