As our country now faces projected deficits and increasing debt for the rest of the decade, we believe it’s time for Congress and the President to sit down, roll up our sleeves, and have an honest discussion about what we need to do to put the budget back in order.  

On Thursday, the Blue Dogs outlined four principles to prevent our children and grandchildren from being stuck with the burden that our country is accumulating today because our generation’s budget decisions.  We call these four principles “The ABCs of Fiscal Discipline”: A – Assuring Honesty and Accountability, B – Balancing the Budget without Raiding Social Security, C – Climbing out of the Deficit Ditch, and D – Defending Children from Paying our Bills.

The ABCs of fiscal discipline says we need enforceable budget restraints that will expose deceptive budget practices and provide a guardrail to keep our spending within the government’s means.  It says we need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that requires us to balance the budget every year, an amendment that could only be waived in extraordinary times such as a war or military conflict and that takes Social Security completely off the table.  It says that if we have to raise the limit on our national debt, that we do so with a plan that will put our fiscal house back in order, just like a family facing financial hardships works to get approval to refinance their debts.  And finally, it says that Congress must have a supermajority—a 3/5 majority—to approve additional government borrowing.

We believe following the ABCs of Fiscal Discipline is the right thing to do for this Congress, for our nation, and for the future of our children and grandchildren.