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Spending:
The payment of money by a government for goods and services, which include public consumption and public investment, and transfer payments consisting of income transfers (pensions, social benefits) and capital transfer.
Tax:
An amount levied by a government on income or profits, or added to the cost of some goods, services, and transactions.
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Government Finance Issues
Government Finance issues affect our current and future financial well being, our security, and our freedom. With the right amount of spending on the right things, and with the right amount of taxes on the right things, we can improve our lives. However, our governments have too often wasted our tax dollars, and over taxed many people while letting others get by without paying their fair share.
Our governments provide many important services that could not be done as efficiently, as cheaply nor as fairly by the private sector. The most important of these is to protect us from foreign nations, terrorists, criminals and nature. Other important government functions include providing us with a fair and equitable economic environment, and with helping us to prosper within that economic environment.
In order to provide these important government services, our governments must spend money. In order to get the money they need, our governments must collect it from us in the form of taxes, fees, fines, etc.
In the short term, our governments may run surpluses or deficits. However, over the long term, the money being spent by our governments needs to closely match the money being collected. Otherwise, the interest on our debt or the higher taxes will put a strain on our economy, which will impact our standard of living.
In order to balance our governments' spending and taxing, we need to ensure the right amount of taxes are being collected for the things that our governments spend the money on and for which we benefit from. In addition, we need to ensure that governments are not wasting any of the money that they collect from us.
In the following sections, I will discuss some of the issues surrounding our governments' spending and taxing decisions, and what I believe we need to do in order to ensure that our tax dollars are being collected fairly and are being spent wisely.
Spending -
Giving people and communities better control over their own spending.
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