Tax Policy:  Pluralism Denied

I.    Purposes of Taxes

    A.     Raise Revenue

    B.     Redistribute Wealth

    C.     Regulate Economic Activity

    D.     Impact Specific Activities

II.    Types of Taxes

    A.  "Good" & "Bad" Taxes

    B.     Progressive Taxes (Federal Personal Income Tax; Tax Burden and Income;

            Individual Income Tax by Income Distribution)

    C.     Proportional or Flat Taxes

    D.     Regressive Taxes 

    F.    Tax Expenditures

III.    Major Sources of Federal Revenue (changing structure; brief history)

    A.     Income Taxes

        1.    Individual and Family

        2.    Corporate Income Taxes (declining source of revenue; detailed analysis)

    B.     Social Security Taxes

    C.     Borrowing (federal debt; causes of deficits; revenues v. outlays

             projected interest as a share of total spending;

    D.     Other

IV.    Recent Policies

    A.     Reagan Tax Reform

    B.   Bush Tax Cuts (critiqued; praised)

    C.    Tax Cuts and Balanced Budget Efforts

Key Web Sites

Glossary of Terms

The Tax Foundation

Office of Management and Budget

Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

Tax Policy Links

Cato Institute:  Tax Policy

House Budget Committee:  Graphs [a gold mine of information]