Figures like Senators Pete Domenici and Alan Simpson, who talked a good game about the long-run deficit, never met a budget-busting Republican program that they would oppose or a deficit-reducing Democratic initiative that they could support. Economists who, under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, talked such a good game about excessive tax burdens and the importance of balanced budgets went very quiet after Clinton took office in January 1993, and stayed quiet after January 2001, when George W. Bush’s administration dismantled so much of what the Clinton administration had accomplished.
参议员多梅尼西（Pete Domenici）辛普森（Alan Simpson）大谈长期赤字如何如何，但他们从没有见过他们会反对的共和党预算减少计划和会支持的民主党赤字削减动议。在里根总统和老布什总统执政期间大谈税务负担过重和平衡预算重要性的经济学家在1993年1月克林顿入主白宫后就收了声，而在2001年后小布什政府把克林顿政府大肆败坏克林顿政府的成果时，他们仍旧保持沉默。