Posted on 11/12/2011 7:00:35 AM PST by rzman21
John Rossomando Follow John on Twitter
Next week could see Republicans adopting an indecent proposal as the House Republicans bring what some big-time conservative activists are calling the “naked balanced-budget amendment” the floor for a vote.
Republicans have been grappling over which version to adopt since the summer. Moderates such as Rep. Bob Goodlatte have lined up behind pushing the “naked” or “clean” BBA that has conservative leaders worried it could cause the courts to raise taxes.
Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey muses in a Friday blog posting that:
“What makes Option B “clean”? No spending caps, no supermajority requirement, and essentially no controls over Congressional tax-and-spend impulses. Rep. Bob Goodlatte insists that this won’t result in massive tax increases, and says that the need to pass a BBA — any BBA — outweighs those concerns… Tax increases are already unpopular enough that even Democrats couldn’t push them through Congress when they controlled both chambers and the White House. They knew that passing direct tax increases, as opposed to the hidden taxes in ObamaCare, would be political death.”
But conservative congressional leaders such as Sens. Jim DeMint, Mike Lee and Rand Paul on the Senate side and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on the House side have been pushing for a stronger version.
They have been joined by a broad coalition of conservative groups led by Americans for Tax Reform, Let Freedom Ring and 60 Plus, which have sent a letter to Speaker Boehner demanding the defeat of the “naked” version.
This strong or fully-clothed version would cap total federal spending at between 18 and 20 percent of GDP.
Without such a spending cap or supermajority needed for raising taxes, Congress could still tax and spend with impunity.
Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan also favors the stronger balanced budget amendment, not a meaningless, watered-down version that could serve as a fig leaf for Democrats who want to brag that they voted for balanced-budget amendment.
But the chances getting Democrats to vote for a balanced-budget amendment this year are far more remote than they were in 1995 when the current House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer got up before the cameras.
Back then Hoyer, who has rejected the balanced budget amendment this time around, pontificated that the nation’s the-$5 trillion national debt imperiled his daughter’s future. But this time he has reversed himself such that our current $15 trillion national debt is not that much of a big deal.
Either version of the balanced-budget amendment faces tall hurdles because it takes 290 votes in the House and 67 votes in the Senate, not to mention that three-quarters of the states need to ratify it.
A test vote in the Senate sponsored by Sen. Lee garnered 11 Democrats in addition to the 47 Republicans, which was nine votes short of what was needed for passage.
In 1995, 66 senators voted for the balanced budget amendment after it passed the House.
But as Milton Friedman wrote in a 1983 column in Atlantic Magazine :
“…I have never supported an amendment directed solely at a balanced budget. I have written repeatedly that while I would prefer that the budget be balanced, I would rather have government spend $500 billion and run a deficit of $100 billion than have it spend $800 billion with a balanced budget. It matters greatly how the budget is balanced, whether by cutting spending or by raising taxes.”
I believe constitutional limits on spending are more important than a balanced budget. If spending can be limited, balancing the budget is not a problem.
“I believe constitutional limits on spending are more important than a balanced budget.”
So do I. The job of the Congress is to be fiscally responsible. They should know to balance the budget otherwise we need new congress crittters.
A M E N!
Spending is one issue, giving the government too much money
is another. They will spend what they receive, and then some.
so getting “them” under control seems to be the real issue.
If anyone has noticed, they prefer to control US rather than
the other way around. Contrary to the Constitution of the
United States of America.
If Congress had the spine to balance the budget then they would. They keep trotting out the balanced budget amendment because they know it’ll never pass.
1. it won't pass
2. if it does pass, it can be used to mandate tax increases once spending gets out of hand.
All they need to do to drive spending up is to let interest rates rise a bit on Treasury borrowing, required spending goes up and so taxes must go up.
The BBA is a trojan horse. The current debt limit is a better law, if they had the balls to stick to it.
Is this where to come to see that naked amendment?? How long before the pictures get posted?
Although the debt limit law is fully clothed, I would prefer seeing it exercised instead of the naked amendment.
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