ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the role of budget politics in the revolving gridlock theory. It overviews the federal budget, noting how broad categories of spending and taxing have changed over time, and then discusses the budget process that led to these outcomes. The chapter explores budget politics from classic consensus budgeting through the inflation of the 1970s, from the deficit politics in the 1980s and 1990s through the subsequent swings of surpluses and deficits that lead us ultimately to an assessment of the future. It develops a clear picture of the ties between the new budgetary politics and the revolving gridlock theory. Given the importance of the federal budget in national politics today, gridlock regions and congressional coalitions cannot be explained without an adequate understanding of the history of budgetary politics. To understand the constraints that the budget places on congressional politics and policymaking, the chapter examines how large categories of the federal budget have changed over time.
