For over 140 years of this country’s history—from 1789 to 1932—balanced budgets or surplus budgets were the norm.  However, since 1960 the United States has run annual federal budget deficits in all but six fiscal years.  Moreover, the size of the annual deficit this country has faced in recent decades is unprecedented and growing rapidly.  Congress has previously used a number of statutory mechanisms to try to solve the federal deficit.  But when faced with fiscal accountability, Congress has continually acted to legislatively evade these mechanisms, which is all too easy to do, so long as a statutory rather than constitutional, budget mandate is in place.  At a time when the United States government is borrowing 42 cents of every dollar it spends and 48 states have similar balanced budget requirements, I believe that the crisis has risen to one that can only be addressed by a constitutional solution.  As a result, I am cosponsoring H.J.Res. 2, a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  This resolution requires that Congress not spend more than it receives in revenues, requires the President to submit a balanced budget to Congress, and requires a 3/5 majority vote to increase the debt limit.  The resolution authorizes a waiver of the provisions when a declaration of war is in effect as declared by a joint resolution that has become law after being adopted by a majority of the whole number of each House.

Find out the results of last week’s instaPoll here.

Learn more about the elements of a Balanced Budget Amendment here.

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