This book also examines the need for taxes and their benefits to a country and its citizens. The military, the interstate highway system, the national parks, and more are paid for with tax money. The IRS is charged with the crucial task of collecting the taxes that make these and all other federal government expenditures possible.

The delegates who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to write the Constitution had two purposes in mind: They wanted to establish a strong central authority and to limit that central authority's capacity to abuse its power.

The series YOUR GOVERNMENT: HOW IT WORKS provides an in-depth examination of our government and its processes and makes clear how our informed partici-pation is crucial to government's serving both the individual and the American people as a whole.