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We Are Better Than This fundamentally reframes budget debates in the United States. Author Edward D. Kleinbard explains how the publics preoccupation with tax policy alone has obscured any understanding of governments ability to complement the private sector through investment and insurance programs that enhance the general welfare and prosperity of our society at large. He argues that when we choose how government should spend and tax, we open a window into our fiscal soul, because those choices are the means by which we express the values we cherish and the regard in which we hold our fellow citizens. Though these values are being diminished by short-sighted decisions to starve government, strategic government spending can directly make citizens happier, healthier, and even wealthier.