Chasing Fiscal Responsibility Through Balanced Budgets: The Collision of Ideology with Political Realities

Abstract

For decades, a central element of the Republican Party brand has been to call for fiscal responsibility through balanced budgets. We study the extent to which the party has been able to implement those ideological principles. In order to answer this question we study macro-level trends in the federal budget across multiple dimensions, and exploit Congressional Budget Office reports to study legislative behavior on specific bills. Evidence of Republican politicians behaving in ways that would suggest a systematic commitment to balanced budgets is mixed, with some evidence of decline across time. Finally, we explore possible explanatory mechanisms.

JEL Classification: H5, H6