1. Identify all periods where the government ran a budget surplus in the past 40 years. (Refer to the "on-budget" deficits and surpluses.)
2. Who was president during these budget surpluses? Is your answer consistent with the characterization of Republicans as favoring small government (less spending) and Democrats as favoring large government (more spending)? What other factorsbesides presidential politicscontribute to budget surpluses?
3. Refer to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website (http://www.bls.gov/(Links to an external site.)
4. ) for data on inflation during the periods of budget surplus that you identified in part1. Was inflation relatively high (over 3%) or low (under 2%) during these budget surpluses? Were the budget surpluses you identified in part1consistent with the inflation at the time? Why or why not?