ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Fiscal policy of the United States

Fiscal policy of the United States is like how your mom and dad decide to spend and save their money. The government of the United States, just like your parents, has to decide how it will spend money and how it will save money.

The government has two main tools for fiscal policy: taxes and spending. Taxes are like the allowance you get from your parents. Your parents can decide to increase or decrease your allowance, just like the government can decide to increase or decrease the taxes they collect from people. The government can also give tax breaks, which means they let people keep more of their money instead of taking it away.

Spending is like what your parents decide to buy for the family. The government also has to decide what to spend money on. This means deciding how much money to spend on things like schools, roads, healthcare, and defense. Just like your parents, the government has to budget its money to make sure it has enough to pay for everything it needs.

Sometimes the government wants to stimulate the economy, which means help it grow and create more jobs. To do this, the government might decide to spend more money on things like infrastructure or give tax breaks to businesses. This is like your parents deciding to buy more things for the family or giving you extra allowance to spend.

On the other hand, sometimes the economy is growing too fast and the government wants to slow it down a little bit. This is called contractionary fiscal policy. The government might decide to raise taxes or spend less money on things like education or healthcare. This is like your parents telling you that you need to save more of your allowance and not spend it all.

In summary, the fiscal policy of the United States is like how your parents decide to spend and save their money, except it is on a much larger scale and affects the whole country. The government uses taxes and spending to manage the economy and ensure it is healthy and growing.