Many attribute elected officials' unwillingness to address the deficits and debt to the existence of entrenched lobbying groups that exert an enormous amount of time and money to protect and expand their particular piece of the government pie. "Deficits have many causes: demographic change, healthcare costs, new social problems, and so on. But that the lobbying explosion is connected to the fiscal crisis is indubitable. As groups and subsidies proliferate, total demands on government grow. But revenues can't increase boundlessly; taxpayers won't put up with it. Faced with implicit limits on tax revenues, and unable to pry resources from existing groups, needy politicians and lobbies look to transfer money from a group that won't organize to defend itself. " (37)

"When an irresistible force meets an immovable object, something has to give. Unable to break through the encrusted mass of lobbies which shield all existing programs, yet unable to deny funds to worthy new claimants, politicians grope for money. In their desperation , they break out of the present and pilfer from generations yet unborn." (38).

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Balancing the Budget