Overview Last week we looked at the politics of spending. This week we will explore the other side of the equation: the politics of taxing. The politics of taxation in the context of public budgeting

PADM 600

Tax Cuts Research Paper Instructions

Read all instructions and rubrics carefully before writing your research paper. You are responsible for having read and understood these documents.

Public budgeting revolves around two basic powers – the power to raise revenue (e.g., to tax) and the power to use the revenues raised to accomplish legitimate constitutionally authorized goals (e.g., to spend). Both of these actions have a wide range of both intended and often unintended consequences. Economic policies and political realities often arise in issues of taxing and spending policies, their influence on the economy, and the resulting impacts on jobs, incomes, living standards and relative freedom and liberty. Ronald Reagan famously employed “supply side economics” and the Laffer Curve in the national budget and budget decisions. After carefully reading this week’s reading assignments, you will conduct your own research and write a concise but thorough research paper 1) explaining and examining the Laffer Curve and a historical perspective on the balance of tax burdens and revenue generation; 2) analyzing contemporary proposals and arguments for the tax cuts in tax reform; 3) analyzing the politics of tax cut discussions in contemporary budget and tax reform issues, and 4) providing a Judeo-Christian analysis of the potential role of tax cuts in contemporary tax reform.

This is a graduate-level research assignment designed to test your ability to carefully research, effectively organize and concisely communicate a nuanced understanding of the concepts and issues raised in the assignment. While the minimum page limit is short (as is often the case in public policy/public administration briefings), students are expected to craft efficient, highly substantive papers.

You are expected to comport with the highest writing, research, and ethical standards. Additionally, to do well on this assignment, you must conduct high-quality research and offer rich, well-supported analysis; mere opinion or conjecture will not suffice.

There must be no careless or simple grammatical errors such as misspellings, incomplete sentences, comma splices, instances of faulty noun/verb agreement, etc. Such errors will result in significant point deductions.

Plagiarism in any form is strictly prohibited and may result in failure of the assignment, failure of the course, and/or removal from the program. It is your responsibility to ensure that you fully understand what constitutes the various forms of plagiarism and that you avoid all forms of plagiarism.

The text of this research paper must be 5–7 pages (not including title page, reference page, and any appendices). This paper must be in current APA format with 1-inch margins and 12-pt Times New Roman font. You must also include a title page and reference page. You must include citations to a sufficient number of appropriate professional, scholarly, or other appropriate sources to fully support your assertions and conclusions (which will likely require more than the minimum number of citations); each paper must contain citations to the course texts book, assigned readings, and a minimum of 5 additional sources, not including the course textbooks, assigned readings, and the Bible.

This assignment must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Sunday of Module/Week 4.