"Tax and spend" is a term used in politics meaning government policy to increase or collect taxes for the purpose of increasing public spending. The term is commonly used as criticism; some have embraced the label. The 1936 United States Supreme Court case United States v. Butler grappled with the question of the constitutionality of tax and spend policy, with the Court majority concluding that "the power to tax and spend includes the power to relieve a nationwide economic maladjustment by conditional gifts of money."