Learning to Love Gramm-Rudman

As if some gigantic meteor were hurtling toward the city, Washington, D.C., is girding for an apocalypse. Warnings of doom, chaos, and catastrophe fill the air. All that is missing are those solemn men pacing the sidewalks with sandwich boards proclaiming: the end is near.

What is terrifying the capital is the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings budget act, which mandates sharp deficit reductions each year until the federal budget is balanced in 1991. If Congress and the President fail to meet Gramm-Rudman’s annual deficit-reduction targets, then automatic cuts will be imposed. These cuts, say many observers, will be so politically painful that Ronald Reagan will have no choice but to reverse his Revolution, raising taxes and abandoning the rebuilding of U.S. defenses.

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Joseph Alessandroni

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As if some gigantic meteor were hurtling toward the city, Washington, D.C., is girding for an apocalypse. Warnings of doom, chaos, and catastrophe fill the air. All that is missing are those solemn men pacing the sidewalks with sandwich boards proclaiming: the end is near.

What is terrifying the capital is the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings budget act, which mandates sharp deficit reductions each year until the federal budget is balanced in 1991. If Congress and the President fail to meet Gramm-Rudman’s annual deficit-reduction targets, then automatic cuts will be imposed. These cuts, say many observers, will be so politically painful that Ronald Reagan will have no choice but to reverse his Revolution, raising taxes and abandoning the rebuilding of U.S. defenses.