Passing the buck : Congress, the budget, and deficits
Annotation In the past thirty years, Congress has dramatically changed its response to unpopular deficit spending. While the landmark Congressional Budget Act of 1974 tried to increase congressional budgeting powers, new budget processes created in the 1980s and 1990s were all explicitly designed to weaken member, majority, and institutional budgeting prerogatives. These later reforms shared the premise that Congress cannot naturally forge balanced budgets without new automatic mechanisms and enhanced presidential oversight. So Democratic majorities in Congress gave new budgeting powers to Presidents Reagan and Bush, and then Republicans did the same for President Clinton. Passing the Buck examines how Congress is increasing delegation of a wide variety of powers to the president in recent years. Jasmine Farrier assesses why institutional ambition in the early 1970s turned into institutional ambivalence about whether Congress is equipped to handle its constitutional duties
1 online resource (xi, 284 pages)
9780813171975, 9780813156743, 9780813123356, 0813171970, 0813156742, 0813123356
644300558
Introduction
Origins and significance of delegation of power
Reforming the reforms : a brief history of congressional budgeting
1974 Budget Act : Congress takes control
Congress attacks deficits (and itself) with Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
Old problems and new tools of self-restraint : the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990
Stop us before we spend again : the Line-Item Veto Act of 1996
Conclusions
Electronic reproduction, [Place of publication not identified], HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010
English