Government Finance Issues

Introduction

Government Finance issues affect our current and future financial wellbeing, 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 overtaxed many of us 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 or 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.

To provide these important government services, our governments must spend money. To get the money they need, our various 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, in the long term, the money being spent by our governments needs to closely match the money being collected. Otherwise, the interest paid on our government debt or the higher taxes will put a strain on our economy, which will impact on our standard of living.

To balance our government’s spending and taxing, we need to ensure that the right amounts of taxes are being collected from the right sources for the things that our governments spend our money on and for which we benefit from. In addition, we need to ensure that our governments are not wasting any of the money that they collect from us.

Government Finance Content

In the following sections, I will discuss some of the issues surrounding our government’s spending and taxing decisions, and what I believe we need to do to ensure that our tax dollars are being collected fairly and are being spent wisely.

• Spending
• Taxes
• Income Taxes
• Investment Income Taxes
• Business Income Taxes

Next Section

Spending - Giving people and communities better control over their own spending.