"We are being subjected to a tyranny of numbers," complained Oregon Republican Mark Hatfield, head of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "Computers have overtaken the people, and the everlasting bottom line has supplanted good judgment." Hatfield's impassioned complaint, amid Senate debate on the budget, was partly right. In a sense, the contest turned on which computer to believe, and Ronald Reagan chose the figures printed out by an electronic brain under the care of his budget boss, David Stockman.
Three computers have been yapping and snarling at each other over the budget for fiscal...
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