ABSTRACT
This chapter compares the fiscal policy beliefs and policies of Clinton and Blair. An intensive study of these leaders and the neoliberal ideas that guided them has led us to four important conclusions. First, highly similar fiscal strategies pursued by the Clinton and Blair administrations reflect strong continuities in their core and secondary policy beliefs. Second, the policy strategies followed by Clinton, Blair, and Thatcher were inspired (to varying degrees) by monetarism, whereas those followed by Reagan were based on Laffer’s supply-side approach. Third, Clinton’s and Blair’s success in getting the spending cuts necessary to balance the budget in the United States and Britain stems, in large part, from the fact that they were able to build broad political support within the fiscal policy subsystem. Fourth, for Clinton and Blair, fiscal prudence represented a core aspect of their of policy beliefs as evidenced by the fact that both leaders spent tremendous amounts of political capital toward that effort. Neoliberal tax policy initiatives-a secondary aspect of their policy beliefs-pursued by Clinton and Blair would be designed in accordance with their highest economic priority: deficit reduction.
