The problem with a Constitutional Amendment for a Balanced Budget is, without it coupled with a spending cap. Congress will keep spending until tax rates are confiscatory. (If the states are a laboratory on this, they are already are confiscatory in some states!). The right way to do it is do a Balanced Budget Amendment with spending capped at 20% or less GNP, then to spend more the economy must grow more.
The key is entitlements get control of them. Soon they will be the entire federal budget. I know its popular to bash Ryan here, but he is the only one who has made a proposal to reel in entitlements. He is a weasel about other things but he is right here. (His proposal needs a lot of work but at least he made it!) To get it done everyone’s ox has to get gored, including, veterans, seniors, women & children, etc. Everyone loves entitlements because everyone gets their turn at the federal trough! That’s why they are so hard to control. It also shows that there is a little entitled socialist in us all ! Watch all the FR’ers jump to tell me I am wrong and defend entitlements! (And if you think social security is not an entitlement, look up Ida Mae Fuller! See how much she put into SS versus how much she took out. There have been 10s of thousands (more!) Ida Mae Fullers! Also remember what you put in while you were working went to those then retired. You get your SS from the next future worker demographic! It was purposely set up to leave “IOUs” imposed on the next generation of workers! Yes politicians & the FedGov has lied to you about this for 80+ years! )
Discretionary spending like defense or the FedGov operating expenses are not much of a problem. Not that we want to be wasteful, watch for that and take care of it. Claiming it all can be solved by cutting government waste or firing feds is a deflection - a red herring. It puts a bad aid on a wound that isn’t there!
A Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution means diddly squat and is totally useless as long as Congress can Create A Fictitious Bank and then give it the Authority to Create Money out of thin air and LOAN it to the Government.
Maybe if we dusted off Article 1, section 8 and Article 1, section 10 and began actually Following the US Constitution a silly Amendment wouldn’t be necessary.
You are wrong. The Constitution doesn’t need a balanced budget amendment, or any other as far as I can see...
The runaway debt is caused by government doing things it has no constitutional authority to do.