ABSTRACT
This chapter presents American and Canadian movement in the same direction—toward spending limits. Though Canadians apparently prefer higher spending as a proportion of their national product than Americans do, both nations now wish to stay at the same (rather than higher) levels. The Budget Act of 1974 expressed Congress's desire to enhance its own power of the purse by giving it the ability to visibly relate revenue and expenditure. Canadian experience with spending limits enables us to pose several important questions about the institutional requirements of expenditure control. With or without indexing taxes, Congress could radically revise its budgetary process by imposing an annual limit on spending within which all items have to fit. The current chaotic economy will lead congressmen and presidents, big and little government adherents, to support reconciliation. By the time the present budget crisis is over reconciliation may have become a way of life.
