This second edition of Politics and the Budget: The Struggle between the President and the Congress is occasioned by two major events and an overriding issue. The major events are the passage of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in 1985 and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The overriding issue is the public debt which shortly will hve tripled since 1980 and which, because of its effects on domestic poliā¦