Coffman: Fight for a balanced budget amendment
By U.S. REP. MIKE COFFMAN
The Aurora Sentinel
Published: Thursday, June 3, 2010 10:15 AM MDT

A system that allows the government to spend money it does not have, and then to cover up the true cost of such spending to the American people, is no longer serving the people. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people is one that is responsible with the people’s money. It not only just spends what it has to, but also only spends what it actually has.

The current culture of reckless borrowing and spending in Washington, perpetuated by both parties, has placed our nation’s future squarely in jeopardy. Our leaders need to be held accountable for their dangerous spending addiction. We must also change the current system in Congress that doesn’t require debating priorities and making difficult choices.

One solution to force Congress to make these difficult and often unpalatable decisions is to pass a constitutional amendment requiring Congress to balance the federal budget, with exceptions in place for wartime or national emergency.

Today our national debt sits at more than $12 trillion, having doubled in just eight years. The president’s budget projects more than a $1.6-trillion deficit this year alone, and he racked up $2 trillion in debt in just 421 days in office. Under this administrations’ 10-year budget forecast, the debt will triple by 2019, jumping to $17.5 trillion. When unfunded liabilities of paying for future entitlement spending are included, the national debt looks more like $65 trillion. It is also projected that in the next 15 years our national debt will reach more than 100 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP).

The impact of these figures can seem cloudy at first but the bottom line is crystal clear: our nation is speeding toward a precipice of complete financial catastrophe. Don’t believe us? Just look at what has happened to Greece in recent weeks. Comparing a nation’s debt to its GDP is an accurate indicator of financial leverage of a country. Greece’s debt recently reached 108 percent of GDP, a level the United States is on track to meet before 2020. If the United States continues on this path we may well face the same economic collapse within the next decade.

So what to do?

It is time taxpayers hold Congress’ feet to the fire and require that they, like every family and nearly every state in the country, have a balanced budget. The federal government must stop recklessly spending money we don’t have and taxpayers should demand that Congress stop spending our future away. If lawmakers are serious about fiscal responsibility they should embrace a balanced budget amendment.

Adoption of a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget is a daunting legislative undertaking and will take an immense amount of political will. Our future largely depends on lawmakers having the courage to do the right thing. We must also not forget — we have done it before, and we can do it again.

To become law the measure must be passed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and then be ratified by two-thirds of the states. The House was able to get the two-thirds majority needed for passage in 1995. However, the balanced budget amendment failed to meet the two-thirds requirement in the Senate by a single vote. Although the amendment failed by the narrowest of margins, Congress did pass balanced budgets for four years, reducing the public debt by $450 billion.

With constraints on what the government is allowed to spend, Congress and the President will be forced to spend carefully and with an eye on reducing waste. Each day, hard-working families make tough choices to balance their budgets and pay their bills. Congress and the President should be held to the same standard.

An amendment requiring a balanced budget is critical because our current fiscal imbalance threatens our future prosperity, national security and even the American dream itself. Consider this, for the first time in our nation’s history nearly half of our federal debt is held by foreign nations. As a larger share of U.S. debt is held by foreign governments, those governments will have an increasing ability to influence U.S. policy. Arguably, we’re selling our freedom to finance a spending addiction.

The American people understand that those difficult decisions and tradeoffs have to be made and if Congressional leaders won’t listen to the people and take up the fight for a balanced budget amendment, those footing the bill should only vote for candidates who will.

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