This project seeks to move beyond debates over the appropriate size of the national deficit and debt by exploring the recent history of federal budgeting. Through a series of in-depth oral histories with key government officials, we plan on historicizing the debt issue by investigating the various contexts in which policy-makers, experts, and public advocates have thought about and sought to improve the nation’s fiscal condition.
See the Slaying the Dragon of Debt: Fiscal Politics & Policy from the 1970s to the Present project website.