Want spending discipline? Wish for gridlock.

With conventional wisdom suggesting that the Republicans will gain at least the control of the House in November, some have begun to ponder what that might mean for the battle over the federal budget. If we’re lucky, those sorts of election returns may at least result in budget gridlock next year.

In political science circles, the term “divided government” implies that at least one house of Congress is controlled by the party opposite that of the president’s. “United government” is the opposite: when both the House and Senate are controlled by the party of the president. The resulting gridlock tends to lock in the status quo – which, in the case of the budget, is usually better than the alternative (read: even more spending).