Can Congress Use Budget Rules To Improve Tax Policy?
Ovid said that “Gods have their own rules.” So does Congress–a vast multitude of rules. The history of the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 is one in which rules have been promulgated; Congress has found loopholes in those rules; more rules have been designed to plug the loopholes; and then the process starts over again. The end result is a set of budget rules that is so complicated that no single human understands them all. The whole panoply of rules associated with the congressional budget process needs a critical reexamination.
