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Thursday, August 4, 2011

GOP Aims To Change U.S.Constitution! Next Battle: Balanced Budget Amendment














Republicans Set Sights on Balanced Budget Amendment

House Republicans, feeling they have scored significant fiscal victories, are moving on to an even bigger challenge: persuading voters, state legislatures and Democrats to alter the Constitution with a balanced budget amendment.

In a meeting with his conference Monday, Speaker John A. Boehner told members that the best thing they could do during the August recess was to sell their constituents on the idea that the amendment — which essentially stipulates that government cannot spend more than it takes in — is necessary and good.

Republican leaders on the Hill have pivoted from railing against Democrats about tax increases to pressing for the amendment, which would require the acquiescence of two-thirds of each chamber of Congress, and three quarters of state legislatures. They point out that such a measure passed the House in 1995, but then failed in the Senate by a single vote.

And once Congress passes a proposed amendment, it bypasses the president, going straight to the states, where 26 legislatures are dominated by Republicans.

Getting Democrats to agree to such a measure now is likely to be an uphill battle. President Obama has previously rejected the idea of a balanced budget amendment. And, after the nasty debt-ceiling duel with Republicans, which left the country a cat’s whisker from default, most Congressional Democrats are bruised and cranky, with little incentive to work with the other side.

Further, of the roughly 10 bills filed by House Republicans to create such an amendment, most contain provisions, like setting a high bar for votes on future debt-ceiling increases, that few Democrats in either chamber would abide. The nation’s fiscal situation is far worse than in the 1990s, when a balanced budget would have required much less drastic cutting than what would be required today.

Opponents argue that an amendment could hamstring the government at times that it needs to run deficits, comparing it, for example, to a situation in which families who need to get mortgages to buy homes would be forbidden from doing so. Most of the versions being proposed this year in the House and Senate do contain a provision that the amendment would be waived when the country is in a declared time of war.

But for Democrats seeking to redefine themselves as careful fiscal stewards on the cusp of the 2012 campaign, the idea of a balanced budget amendment free of hard-line provisions is not an impossible sell. Several Senate Democrats have said in the past that they support such an amendment, and Senator Mark Udall of Colorado has already put forth his own measure.

“I think it is definitely achievable,” said Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, who has offered two balanced budget amendments, one far more conservative than the other. “I have been talking to dozens of Democrats in the House about this and there is a tremendous amount of interest in this issue.”

Under the agreement to lift the debt ceiling approved by Congress and signed by President Obama this week, a second $1.6 trillion increase is contingent upon either the adoption of deficit reductions recommended by a new Congressional “super committee” or Congressional passage of a balanced budget amendment. If neither is done, large cuts to military spending and some social programs would automatically be made. Nearly every state has some form of balanced budget provision, though most are more flexible than those proposed for the federal government. “It is almost so institutionalized now, though there is a variance in stringency” said Brian Sigritz, the director of state fiscal studies for the National Association of State Budget Officers. ”

In the House, the two measures that have gained the most traction are Mr. Goodlatte’s, which prohibit outlays exceeding total receipts for that fiscal year, other than interest payments, unless Congress says otherwise in a three-fifths vote of each chamber.

The more conservative version would require a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate to raise taxes and a spending cap of 18 percent of the gross domestic product, unless two-thirds of each chamber of Congress provides for a specific increase above this amount. The measures require a three-fifths roll call vote in each chamber to increase the public debt limit.

“The more tough version has broad Republican support,” Mr. Goodlatte said, “but it’s not going to get the 290 votes needed.”

The other measure, similar to the amendment that passed the House in 1995, enjoys support from even those members who offered their own right-leaning options, he said.

In the Senate, Mr. Udall’s amendment faces significant hurdles with Republicans, largely because it prohibits Congress from providing income-tax breaks for people earning over $1 million a year, except during years of budget surpluses. Another senator, Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, has his own measure, and the two men have been playing phone tag trying to set up a time to talk about their proposals.

Many Democrats, even moderates, have raised skepticism about any balanced budget amendment offered by a Republican.

“As someone who supported the 1995 balanced budget amendment, let me say that at this point in time I would not support it,” said Representative Steny H. Hoyer, the Democratic whip, in a recent meeting with reporters. Mr. Hoyer added, “I don’t have any confidence that even at a time of great challenge, that there aren’t 40 percent-plus one in the House that would oppose doing something necessary to assure the country was on a sound footing.”

Republicans have also expressed their doubts. In a recent speech on the floor of the Senate, Senator John McCain of Arizona said: “I will take a backseat to none in my support of the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. I have voted for it 13 times. I will vote for it tomorrow. What is amazing about this is, some members are believing we can pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution in this body with its present representation, and that is foolish. That is worse than foolish.”

But none of this will likely stop Republican supporters from pushing the issue, as they have with all their fiscal policy hopes and dreams in the 112th Congress.

“House and Senate passage of the balanced budget amendment will make reckless borrowing a thing of the past and will ensure that our children enjoy futures full of opportunity,” Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, said in a recent op-ed article. “Let Democrats and Republicans join together to do the right thing and make a real difference for the future.”



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