OLLI of Greater Birmingham presents AMERICAN POLICIES ON ECONOMICS, TAX AND BUDGET, AND SOCIAL WELFARE with instructor Adamu (A.K.) Shauku, Professor of Political Science, UAB.  Candidates for public office routinely promise to “fix the economy”, but what economic policy tools are actually available to elected officials and what are the limits of those tools?  Candidates promise to secure funding for budgetary priorities while also addressing our growing public debt; but how can we critically evaluate these plans?  The funding challenges confronting important social safety net programs such as Social Security can be overcome, but what trade-offs must be negotiated to do so?  This short course offers the context and conceptual tools to equip citizens to think intelligently about these issues of public concern.