ABSTRACT
As in 1995, the Medicare and Medicaid legislation were parts of a budget reconciliation, though the political environment was much changed. Important in political context was the continuing shift in the House from leadership-driven to committee-centered for the reconciliation—more like the balance typical for ordinary legislation. In accounting for the difference between 1997 and 1995, participants in events during those years cite a good many factors that could be grouped under almost as many headings. The budget resolution of May 2 was essential to the success of the budget reconciliation of August 5 in more than the usual sense that it set the big numbers on entitlements, discretionary spending, and tax cuts. This resolution was a novelty in its own right: its main outlines developed by an advance summit between administration staff and congressional aides and then between the principals.
