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.
The BEA’s budget rules - which were extended twice before they were allowed to expire in 2002 appear to have been more successful than previous attempts at budget control. Budget deficits declined sharply from 1992 to 1997 and then turned to surpluses from 1998 through 2001.