In last week's backgrounder blog post on budget reconciliation, we said that the process has been used 22 times in the past, with the President having vetoed three of the bills. That leaves 19 bills that have become law through this special process since 1980. In the graph below, we show the net effect on the deficit of all these bills over the years defined by that year's budget resolution rules.

Budget Reconciliation Bills Enacted into Law (billions)

Source: Congressional Research Service, "Budget Reconciliation Measures Enacted into Law: 1980-2008."