Pay-As-You-Go” or PAYGO rules and laws require offsets for new tax cuts and mandatory spending so they do not add to the debt ...

The PAYGO budget rule has been rendered nearly meaningless by both parties. After three full decades of on-again, off-again use, PAYGO has utterly failed to prevent the national debt from ballooning.

For starters, PAYGO exempts discretionary spending - that huge chunk of the federal budget (40 percent) that includes most defense, education, housing, homeland security and transportation> spending.

The PAYGO law was passed in 2010 under Pelosi’s speakership, and it requires tax cuts and mandatory spending increases to offset any hit to the deficit from a bill that passes.

The paygo rules, he noted, exempt emergency spending. "Right now, adding to the deficit in fact helps the economy, it doesn't hurt," Horney noted.

PAYGO isn’t a magic wand. The jobs it creates might only be in the hundreds and only directly benefit the contractors who repave roads, install flood controls or fix leaking school roofs.

In a single year, the plan may exceed PAYGO limits. In addition, about 40 percent of the federal budget, programs for education, energy, the military, etc., would not be covered by PAYGO, said Orszag.

The clock is ticking on Congress waiving PAYGO for Build America Bonds, a budget bear trap that could delay promised subsidy payments totaling $14 billion to issuers.

PAYGO first became law in 1990, as a way to rein in the deficits of the 1980s. But Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush waived the law during periods of major economic growth.

PAYGO, an obscure budget rule that requires Congress to fully pay for new spending, has triggered a rebellion within the House Democratic Caucus. Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio ...

For starters, PAYGO exempts discretionary spending - that huge chunk of the federal budget (40 percent) that includes most defense, education, housing, homeland security and transportation spending.

The CBO estimates that PAYGO would require a sequestration order to reduce spending by $381B next January on the $1.9T "stimulus.” ...