"In Slaying Leviathan, Leslie Carbone argues that, since the early twentieth century, U.S. tax policy has mitigated the natural economic results of both virtue and vice. By creating incentives and disincentives that overturn the natural consequences of both virtue and vice, the federal government has perverted its own proper function as an enforcer of rights and instrument of justice and become part of the problem that it exists to correct-fostering social breakdown while dampening economic prosperity." "Slaying Leviathan envisions an approach to tax policy rooted in natural justice. To achieve this goal, Carbone first traces the historical evolution of U.S. tax policy, from the 1765 Stamp Act to the 1997 tax cut. She then assesses the current American tax burden and former president George W. Bush's tax cuts and explores the fundamental problems with U.S. tax policy. After providing a historical analysis of federal spending and of expanding governmental expectations, she offers a set of over-arching principles and instructions on how to apply them to tax policy proposals."--Jacket.