Can we make ends meet?

- - CAN WE MAKE ENDS MEET? Should the government balance the federal budget? One might assune assume that it would be good to balance the federal budget. However, a few economic thinkers disagree and have suggested new paradigms. For the last sixty years, the government has run budget deficits as a primary method for stimulating economies with high unemployment rates. In theory, the budget should return to balance or surplus during boom times. According to …

…proposed or enacted remedies for deficits and public debt include: a proposed constitutional amendment mandating an annually balanced budget                                                                                           the Graham-Rudman-Hollings Act which required annual deficit reductions                                                                                                    budget legislation of 1990 which raised taxes, cut expenditures, and forced Congress to offset new spending or tax cuts with reductions in existing spending or tax increases                                                                greater privatization of the economy by selling public assets and programs to the private sector; and                                                                giving the President line-item veto authority.