We invented the "magic asterisk": If we couldn't find the savings in
time -- and we couldn't -- we would issue an IOU. We would call it
"future savings to be identified." It was marvelously creative. A magic
asterisk item would cost negative $30 billion . . . $40 billion . . .
whatever it took to get a balanced budget in 1984 after we toted up all
the individual budget cuts we'd actually approved.
-- David A. Stockman
"The Triumph of Politics: Why The Reagan Revolution Failed"
Newsweek April 21, 1986, Special Report; The Stockman Story; Pg. 40