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.
Irene S. Rubin is Professor Emeritus of Public Administration at Northern Illinois University. She is the author of Running in the Red: The Political Dynamics of Urban Fiscal Stress, Shrinking the Federal Government, Class Tax and Power: Municipal Budgeting in the United States, and Balancing the Federal Budget: Eating the Seed Corn or Trimming the Herds, all four of which rely extensively on qualitative interviews. She has written journal articles about citizen participation in local level government in Thailand, how universities adapt when their budgets are cut, and fights between legislative staffers and elected and appointed officials about unworkable policy proposals, all based on qualitative interviews. She is in the middle of an interviewing project about how local officials view and use contracts with the private sector and with other governmental units to provide public services.
1. 1981-1998: Balancing the Budget: What Have We Learned?: Why Balance the Budget: Defining the Problem. Learning How to Balance the Budget. Design of the Study. Organization of the Book. References. 2. What Happened and What Was Learned: What Have We Learned: The Lessons of the late 1970s and Early 1980s. Avoid Reductions in Force to Slim the Workforce. Finding a Budget Process that Discourages Deficits. Gramm-Rudman-Hollings. The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990. Conclusion. 3. Information Agencies: Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of the Census: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Conclusions. 4. Budget Offices: Congressional Budget Office. OMB. 5. The General Accounting Office: Vulnerability. Criticisms of the agency's performance. Budget History. Agency Responses. Agency Strategies. Summary and Conclusions. 6. The Departments' Response: Agriculture: Overview of Themes. The USDA. Conclusions. 7. Department of Commerce: Introduction and Background. Budget Cuts, Threats of Termination, and Response. Department wide responses. Resistance and Triage. Winning Support. EDA: Cuts, Threats of Termination, and Adaptation. The PTO, User Fees and Deficit Reduction. NOAA. Conclusions. 8. The Department of Housing and Urban Development: Introduction. The Reagan Years. The Scandals. Clinton Administration. Consequences. Earmarking and Boutique Programs. Monitoring and Evaluation. Constituencies and advocacy. Conclusions. 9. Office of Personnel Management: Introduction. The Reagan Years. The National Performance Review: Phases One and Two. Reorganization. Assessment. Themes. 10. Eating the Seed Corn and Trimming the Herds: Budget Process and Tradeoffs. Defining Core Functions. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Census Bureau. Office of Personnel Management. HUD. Responding to Staffing Reductions: Increased Efficiency and Contracting Out. Duration. Strategies. Learning.
