Budgetary Policy and the Crisis of the Welfare State

The federal budget for the fiscal year 1980 proposes a socially regressive shift in national priorities. It uses fiscal policy to engender higher levels of unemployment. It shifts the burden of fighting inflation to those least able to bear it, while providing for large, inherently inflationary increases in military spending. In contrast to earlier budgets, the one for 1980 has been formulated in terms of international financial policies; the planned curtailment of the budgetary deficit and c...