Talk:Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget Act

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Re "late 1990's": George H. W. Bush stopped being president in 1993, and George W. Bush was not president until 2001. So how could either President George Bush have been responsible for spending policy in the late 1990s?

Simple. Read closely:

However, those balanced budgets did not actually emerge until the late 1990s after significant income tax rate increases under Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton.

Note how it says the late 1990s were after increases under the Presidents, not that that's when the increases were. Make more sense now? -- John Owens 12:15 13 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Thanks. I can now see the original intent. Reworded to:

However, those balanced budgets did not actually emerge until the late 1990s after the significant income tax rate increases under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton had had time to take effect.

The Anome 12:25 13 Jun 2003 (UTC)

There are now two pages on Gramm-Rudman-Hollings: This one and Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act. They should be consolidated under "Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985." Dauster 14:01, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

--Icolson 22:48, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Apparently this initiative was abandoned. The articles are discussing the same act, so combine them both under the act name - "Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act" There's not much more you need to know than what the two articles contain.

--User:kanaugle 01/24/2008 12:42 I think the discussion misses the point that the budget was balanced using other than generally accepted accounting practices. Information available from Treasury Direct shows that the total U.S. Govt. debt increased every year from 1987 to 1999 and beyond. Thus the budget was not "really" balanced.

Also, the mixing of balanced budget with a rather generic statement on taxes IMO violates NPOV because it points to partisan spin over how tax increases/cuts affect actual revenue, but does not really address whether revenue and spending are balanced.

I think the only appropriate statement is that it is not clear that this act achieved its intended result of actually balancing the federal budget.

Ciao!