Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget

Very short book about the problem of the US federal budget. It’s not balanced, the deficit keeps growing, and so does the debt.

The book details the two basic theories of balancing the budget (reduce spending or raise taxes), and a growing number of people who want to do both. It also lays out some of the systemic, intractable problems with the budget – we have a lot of old people who are living longer, medical costs are skyrocketing, and everyone wants to cut spending for other people, not themselves.

Again, the book is short – about 160 pages, without notes. It doesn’t offer solutions, and doesn’t dig too deep into anything, but it seems very neutral and gives some good background information about the scope of the problem.