Is Adoption of a Congressional Budget Plan Synonymous with Fiscal Discipline?
Moving beyond the immediate issues regarding the 2005 budget, two considerations suggest that, in general, adoption of a congressional budget plan may not be synonymous with fiscal discipline. First, such a plan may itself facilitate larger tax cuts or spending increases than would otherwise occur. Second, such a plan may exist more for the sake of scoring political points than for the purpose of guiding and limiting the cost of subsequent legislation. Prior to enactment of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, Congress did not write annual congressional budget plans. Rather, its committees, acting without formal congressional guidance, designed budgetary legislation on their own. This did not mean that the committees were legislating in the dark; they could and did measure their appropriations, tax, or entitlement proposals against existing law or against the prior level of appropriations. They also measured their legislation against the President s budget. Before the Congressional Bu
