Some years ago, Rudolph Penner offered an oft-repeated response to politicians who had used proposed changes in the budget process to bolster their credentials as deficit hawks. “The problem,” he said, “is not the process, the problem is the problem.”
What Penner, Director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1983 to 1987, meant is that politicians have it within their power to cut deficits and limit public debt without rewriting the process first. All they have to do is vote to cut spending or raise taxes. Politicians sometimes use discussion of the process to avoid responsibility for directly addressing the problem.
While Penner certainly had a point, the persistence of rising government debt over many decades, and in many different political settings around the world, suggests that the problem isn't solely a function of inadequate political leadership.
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