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Constitutional Politics And Balanced Budgets, Nancy Staudt
Constitutional Politics And Balanced Budgets, Nancy Staudt
Faculty Working Papers
Unbalanced budgets have sparked decades of debate among legislators, scholars, and the public at large. Although the controversy has abated somewhat in recent years, many continue to believe that Congress has a tendency to pursue a level of public debt that is both inefficient and unfair. Foremost among those who criticize the federal budgeting process are fiscal constitutionalists, a group of public choice scholars who believe the constitutional constraints are the only means by which the public will obtain protection from legislative fiscal irresponsibility. This article explores the public choice argument for a balanced budget amendment and argues that it …
If Major Wars Affect (Judicial) Fiscal Policy, How & Why?, Nancy Staudt
If Major Wars Affect (Judicial) Fiscal Policy, How & Why?, Nancy Staudt
Faculty Working Papers
This paper seeks to identify and explain the effects of major wars on U.S. Supreme Court decision-making in the context of taxation. At first cut, one might ask why we should even expect to observe a correlation between military activities and judicial fiscal policy. After all, the justices have no authority whatsoever to adopt funding laws intended to relieve the budgetary pressures that tend to emerge in times international crisis. The Court, however, is able to contribute to the wartime revenueraising efforts indirectly by adopting a pro-government stance in the cases it decides in wartime periods. As the probability of …