Balancing the Federal Budget

Covering the period from 1982 to 1998, this book chronicles the efforts of the U.S. federal government as it tried and eventually succeeded in balancing the budget. The book traces the successive efforts of Congress and the administration to shape a process that would encourage balance and the reactions of federal agencies to budget balancing pressures. Fundamentally an optimistic book, its message is that once a problem is put on the agenda, government can learn to solve it, maybe not in the most efficient possible way, but in a ragged and democratic fashion.