Fiscal Therapy
Curing America's Debt Addiction and Investing in the Future

Fiscal Therapy shows how to make America's economy stronger and fairer by meeting long-term budget challenges while also addressing its short-term need for more investment and better social policy. America is facing a double-edged sword of budget challenges. In the coming decades, rising public debt will hurt our economy, threaten our global leadership, and reduce the living standards of our people. It will require tax increases and spending cuts to bring about a sustainable outcome. At the same time, however, America has pressing needs -- from improving our schools and making child care more available to rebuilding our infrastructure and investing more in scientific research -- all of which require upfront investments right now. In Fiscal Therapy, William Gale diagnoses these two set of challenges and explains why we must address them simultaneously. Fiscal Therapy shows that we can address our long-term budget challenges in ways that also help us meet our short-term needs, and we can do so without radically transforming our current institutions and existing programs. Gale draws lessons from the nation's history; takes guidance from the experiences of other advanced nations; reconciles the twin demands of economic growth and social fairness; and addresses the obstacles that America's poisonous politics and fickle public opinion present. Fiscal Therapy provides a clear, comprehensive, and optimistic approach around which liberals and conservatives can rally. One that will leave the United States a stronger, more prosperous, and fairer nation.

William G. Gale is Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy, Director, Retirement Security Project, and Co-Director, Urban Institute-Brookings Tax Policy Center, Brookings Institution