The Deficit and the Public Interest
  List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
  Preface  The Era of the Budget
  Acknowledgments

 collapse sectionOne  Madisonian Budgeting, or Why the Process is so Complicated
 •Types of Budget Commitments
 •A Madisonian Budget System
 •The Executive Budget
 •Appropriations: The Old Congressional Budget Process
 •Creating a New Budget Process
 •The Budget Act of 1974
 •How the New Process Worked
 •Coda: A Budget Is Many Things and One of Them Is a Performance
 collapse sectionTwo  Democrats in a Budget Trap
 •The Budgeting Dilemma
 •The Politics of Recession
 •The Economics of Recession
 collapse sectionEconomists and Budgets
 •The Keynesian Orthodoxy
 •The Supply-Side Challenge
 •Money and Monetarism
 •The Neoclassicists
 •Economists and the Economy
 •Bonds and the Budget
 collapse sectionThree  "The Worst of All Worlds"
 •Defense Spending
 •The House Divided
 •The Senate United Means the Congress Divided
 •A Procedural Revolution
 •More Economic Pressures
 •From Bad to Worse
 •The Election, the Economy, and a Fragmented Budget
 •Lame Ducks
 •There They Go Again
 collapse sectionFour  Preparing for the Reagan Revolution
 collapse sectionNot a Mandate But an Opportunity
 •Ideology and Reaganism
 collapse sectionThe President and His Advisers
 •Round One, the Campaign
 •Making Policy
 •Stockman
 collapse sectionTactical Considerations
 •The Democrats
 collapse sectionFive  The President's Program
 •Reagan's Attack Takes Shape
 •Who's on First? Taxing or Spending?
 •The Rosy Scenario
 •Contemplating Cuts
 •"Fairness"
 •The Defense Buildup
 •Stockman Proposes and Reagan Disposes: The President's Program
 collapse sectionSix  Gramm-Latta 1
 •A Pause for Public Opinion
 •The Republicans: Some Victories, Some Doubts
 •Republicans Shot Down
 collapse sectionMoths, Weevils, and the Unexpected
 •Numbers and Priorities
 •Social Security
 collapse sectionSeven  Party Responsibility Comes to Congress
 •The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981  (OBRA, aka Gramm-Latta 2)
 •Conciliatory Name, Hostile Process
 collapse sectionEight  Starving the Public Sector: The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981
 •The Die Is Cast: June 3–9, 1981
 •The Democrats Respond
 •Senate Finance Moves
 •The Bidding War
 •Christmas in July
 •Mobilizing the Public
 •Meanings
 collapse sectionNine  Return of the Deficit
 •The Markets Say No
 •Stockman versus Weinberger
 •Reagan Loses Control
 •Bye, Bye, Balanced Budget
 •Into the Heart of Budget Darkness
 collapse sectionTen  A Government Divided
 •The Initiative Shifts toward Senate Republicans
 •Lots of Attitudes Mean Little Latitude
 •Groupings
 •Farmers
 •The Party of Responsibility
 collapse sectionEleven  Fake Budgets and a Real Tax Hike
 •A Stillborn Budget
 •The President Retreats
 •Musical Chairs
 •The Gang of 17
 •Passing a Budget: The Senate
 •Passing a Budget: The House
 •The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA)
 collapse sectionTwelve  Economics as Moral Theory:  Volckernomics, Reaganomics, and the Balanced Budget Amendment
 •The Stock Market
 •The Federal Reserve and the Banks
 •Volckernomics
 •Reaganomics as a Moral Economy
 •Should Spending Be Limited by Constitutional Amendment?
 collapse sectionThirteen  Guerrilla Warfare: Spending Politics, 1982
 •Supplemental Appropriations
 •Getting Through the Election
 •The Election of 1982
 •A Lame Duck Takes Wing, Sputtering
 •Back to the Senate
 •The 97th Congress
  Fourteen  A Triumph of Governance: Social Security
 collapse sectionFifteen  Causes and Consequences of the Deficit
 •The Deficit Dilemma
 •The Economy and the Deficit
 •"Consequences" of the Deficit
 collapse sectionSixteen  The Budget Process Collapses
 •Reagan Hangs Tough
 •Another Dead Budget
 •An Interlude of Normal Politics
 •The First (and Last) Resolution or, Wanted: a Budget, Dead or Alive
 •Packages and Formulas
 •Failure in the House
 •No Go in the Senate
 collapse sectionSeventeen  Budgeting Without Rules
 •The Three-Ring Circus
 •A (White) House Divided: Reagan
 •A Down Payment
 •To the Rose Garden
 •A Thicket of Thorns
 •Who Wants a Budget?
 •Passing DEFRA
 •Life Without a Budget
 collapse sectionEighteen  The Deficit in Public and Elite Opinion
 •Democrats and the Deficit
 •In Search of a Program
 •The Deficit and the Election
 •The Deficit and Elite Opinion
 collapse sectionNineteen  Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, or the Institutionalization of Stalemate
 •Politicians under Pressure
 •The Road to Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
 collapse sectionHaven't I Met You Before?
 •Budget Diary, Part 1
 •A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come
 •Gramm in Congress
 collapse sectionHow the Balanced Budget and Deficit Reduction Act of 1985 (GRH) Was Supposed to Work
 •The Deficit Reduction Timetable
 •The Importance of Considering Others
 collapse sectionDoing the Same and Feeling Worse
 •Budget Diary, Part 2
 collapse sectionTwenty  Counterpoint: The Improbable Triumph of Tax Reform
 •Preferences as Policy
 •The Origins of Tax Reform
 •The Politicians Try Tax Reform
 •Rostenkowski Delivers
 •Packwood's Conversion
 •Life and Death
 •An Integrative Solution
 •Who Wins and Who Loses: Tax Preferences
 •Spending and Tax Reform: Two Radical Changes Compared
 collapse sectionTwenty-One  Budgeting with Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, or "Help Me Make It Through the Night"
 •The Supreme Court and the Separation of Powers:  The Comptroller General's Role in Sequestration Ruled Unconstitutional
 •Congress Copes with the Court Decision
 •Rigging the Numbers
 •The Continuing, Continuing Resolution
 •What Hath Gramm-Rudman Wrought?
 •Black Monday
 •Confronting Budget Reality
 collapse sectionTwenty-Two  The Deficit and the Public Interest
 •Who Rules?
 •Capitalism, Democracy, and the Budget
 •The Dis-United State
 •The Congressional State
 •The Political Stratum
 •The Public Sphere
 •The State as a State of Mind
 •Pluralism and the Dilemma of Public Authority
 •Every Government Would Bribe Business to Bring Prosperity, If Only It Knew How
 •Interest Group Liberalism
 •Public Interests
 •An Immune System out of Control
 collapse sectionTwenty-Three  Nobody's Darling, but No One's Disaster Either: A Moderate Proposal on the Deficit
 •The Two Elderly Irishmen and Other Misleading Explanations
 •Sliding By
 •What Would We Do?
 •Redefining the Deficit
 •Transforming a Futile Budget Politics
 collapse sectionPostscript:  The Budget Truce of 1990
 •A Five-Year Budget Package
 •Getting There
 •What Does It Mean?

 collapse sectionNotes
 •One Madisonian Budgeting, or Why the Process is so Complicated
 •Two Democrats in a Budget Trap
 •Three "The Worst of All Worlds"
 •Four Preparing for the Reagan Revolution
 •Five The President's Program
 •Six Gramm-Latta 1
 •Seven Party Responsibility Comes to Congress
 •Eight Starving the Public Sector: The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981
 •Nine Return of the Deficit
 •Ten A Government Divided
 •Eleven Fake Budgets and a Real Tax Hike
 •Twelve Economics as Moral Theory: Volckernomics, Reaganomics, and the Balanced Budget Amendment
 •Thirteen Guerrilla Warfare: Spending Politics, 1982
 •Fourteen A Triumph of Governance: Social Security
 •Fifteen Causes and Consequences of the Deficit
 •Sixteen The Budget Process Collapses
 •Seventeen Budgeting Without Rules
 •Eighteen The Deficit in Public and Elite Opinion
 •Nineteen Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, or the Institutionalization of Stalemate
 •Twenty Counterpoint: The Improbable Triumph of Tax Reform
 •Twenty-One Budgeting with Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, or "Help Me Make It Through the Night"
 •Twenty-Two The Deficit and the Public Interest
 •Twenty-Three Nobody's Darling, but No One's Disaster Either: A Moderate Proposal on the Deficit
 •Postscript: The Budget Truce of 1990
 collapse sectionIndex
 •A
 •B
 •C
 •D
 •E
 •F
 •G
 •H
 •I
 •J
 •K
 •L
 •M
 •N
 •O
 •P
 •Q
 •R
 •S
 •T
 •U
 •V
 •W
 •Y
 •Z
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