Gramm–Rudman–Hollings Balanced Budget Act

There were two versions of this bill:

The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985

The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987

According to Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, a sponsor: "'Gramm-Rudman' was the first binding constraint imposed on federal spending, and its spending caps have become part of every subsequent U.S. budget. Together with a rapidly growing economy it produced the first balanced federal budget in a quarter of a century." http://www.senate.gov/~gramm/bio.html

However, those balanced budgets did not actually emerge until the late 1990s after significant income tax rate increases under Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton.