1. Identify all periods where the government ran a budget surplus in the past 40 years. (Refer to the "on-budget" deficits and surpluses.) Go to the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO)

Budget and Economic Information page (http://www.cbo.gov/topics/budget/budget-and-economic-outlook ). Use the historical budget link on this page to answer the questions below. Be sure to use the May 2019 data set to access the complete data set. 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 factors-besides presidential politics-contribute to budget surpluses? 3. Refer to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website (http://www.bls.gov/ e ) for data on inflation during the periods of budget surplus that you identified in part 1. Was inflation relatively high (over 3%) or low(under 2%) during these budget surpluses? Were the budget surpluses you identified in part a consistent with the inflation at the time? Why or why not?