Budget Crisis

Review by W. J. Rayment / ConservativeBookstore -- I don't usually read books with a cartoon on the cover if I am in a serious mood. However, Where Does the Money Go?" is a serious book presented in a light package. It works hard to make a rather depressing subject entertaining. This book is about the massive debt that the U.S. Government is accumulating.

This "Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis" is an up to date and comprehensive review of how the government got into this mess, and proposes some ways to get us out of it. There is a very interesting chart (several pages long) at the end of the book that lists all of the major spending done by the government and asks the reader to decide what we should not be spending our money on.

Bittle and Johnson do a good job explaining the ramifications of the budget crisis. They also make clear the difference between budget shortfalls and the national debt, which gets confused in the minds of some people. The budget deficit or surplus being the amount of decrease or increase in the debt on a per annum basis. The debt is the total amount owed by the the government.

The authors blame both liberals and conservatives for the huge deficits and the national debt, saying that liberal policies overspend, and conservative efforts to reduce taxes just reduce income to the federal government. To be fair, however, the authors do mention the conservative argument that lower taxes might stimulate the economy and - in the long run - create more revenue.

There is a lot of good information in this book. It is written in easily understood language, that should raise awareness about the nation's budget crisis.

Where Does the Money Go? Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis is available at Amazon.