By Ezra Klein

The Washington Post

July 27, 2011

When Republicans fret about future spending caps, they’re thinking of the 1985 Gramm-Rudman-Hollings act. The law said that unless Congress got deficits below a certain percentage of GDP each year, across-the-board cuts would automatically sink in. The goals were unrealistic, and rebellion quickly ensued. “We couldn’t control what GDP was going to be, so the targets were always moving. It quickly became impossible for Congress to get the votes to meet the goals,” says Steve Bell, who was the Republican staff director on the Senate Budget Committee at the time.

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Economic Policy Project