Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget Act
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The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, and the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987 (both often known as Graham-Rudman) were, according to U.S. Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, "the first binding constraint imposed on federal spending, and its spending caps have become part of every subsequent U.S. budget. Together with a rapidly growing economy it produced the first balanced federal budget in a quarter of a century."
However, those balanced budgets did not actually emerge until the late 1990s after the significant income tax rate increases under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton had had time to take effect.