However, although the PAYGO budget rule, for example, appeared to help keep legislation from increasing federal deficits for a number of years, PAYGO did not provide a mechanism to deal with the long-term budget imbalances already in place. Thus, it is worth considering whether future budget rules should go beyond the scope of PAYGO and require more fundamental adjustments to spending and taxes.
Clearly, there are numerous ways in which budget policy could be adjusted to bring the budget back into balance in the short run and to maintain it over the long run. In any event, these difficult choices must ultimately be made.