In other words, the PAYGO restraint didn’t require the Congress to climb out of the deficit hole by any particular date, but it did prohibit the Congress from digging the hole any deeper. The largest difference between the BEA and GRH was that the BEA attempted to restrain legislative action alone.
Changes in the deficit resulting from changes in economic conditions, health prices, demographics, and other technical or economic factors were allowed to show through to the deficit without sanction. Only those parts of the budget that the Congress could control directly - discretionary spending and programmatic changes to entitlement and revenue programs - were subject to the new requirements.