Summer School 3: How government decides what to spend our money on
Episode
36 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Economics & Policy
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Why doesn't the government balance its budget annually?
- ✓How do politicians decide spending priorities across programs?
- ✓What return do lobbyists get on their investments?
What It Covers
Planet Money Summer School explores government spending decisions, examining how politicians allocate taxpayer money across programs like Medicare, Social Security, defense, and the influence of lobbying on budget priorities.
Key Questions Answered
- •Why doesn't the government balance its budget annually?
- •How do politicians decide spending priorities across programs?
- •What return do lobbyists get on their investments?
Notable Moment
Tax professor Raquel Alexander discovers companies earned $220 in tax benefits for every dollar spent lobbying during the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act, checking her calculations twenty times.
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