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Milton Friedman used to point out that the only reason the government balanced the budget in the late 90's was not because Republicans controlled congress, but
by luriel 14y ago
Milton Friedman used to point out that the only reason the government balanced the budget in the late 90's was not because Republicans controlled congress, but because gridlock.
He accurately predicted that if both Congress and the White House were controlled by the same party (whatever party) spending would get out of control.
As others have pointed out, gridlock is a feature of the US political system, not a bug.
- guelo 14y agoThe 90s balanced budgets were caused by 1) the PAYGO rules enacted in 1990 that were allowed to expire in 2002 2) the huge 1993 tax increase 3) the strong economy and runup of the stock market in the latter part of the decade.
- crag 14y ago"As others have pointed out, gridlock is a feature of the US political system, not a bug." It's a feature of all elected governments. You wanna worse gridlock.. sit on on any EU meet.
- snowwrestler 14y agoThis is not correct. Party conflict (which is what Friedman referred to) is not the same as gridlock. To balance a budget you have to adjust spending and revenue. To do that you have to pass new bills. This is what happened during the late 1990s: the GOP Congress and the Democratic administration were forced to compromise with one another. They passed a new budget that resulted in the balanced budget. But during gridlock, it is impossible to get new bills past the 60 vote barrier. Gridlock does not create new balanced budgets, it creates omnibus continuing resolutions. CR's spend and tax exactly as they did last year. If last year wasn't balanced, next year under a CR will not be balanced either.