REP. LAMBORN: Balanced budget amendment is honest solution to debt

By Congressman Doug Lamborn

The Gazette

The big-spending, big-government policies of the Obama administration have failed America. Millions of Americans have lost their homes, their jobs, and even their hopes for a brighter future. Families have seen their savings and their home values plummet. Our economy is stalled. It is no wonder the American people are worried and angry.

The solution is a balanced budget amendment.

While Colorado families have been coping with the recession for the past three years by spending less and saving more, the federal government continues to borrow and spend money it simply does not have. Since President Obama took office, the national debt has increased by $3.7 trillion. To put that in perspective, it took the U.S. 216 years, from 1776 until 1992, to accumulate the same amount of debt that Obama has borrowed in 21/2 years.

Our national debt is higher than any time in American history, equaling 100 percent of our entire economy. We are currently borrowing more than 40 cents of every dollar we spend and sending the bill to our children, our grandchildren, and generations yet unborn.

Balancing budgets is not an unproven idea. Forty-nine states, including Colorado, and countless smaller governments, currently comply with a balanced budget requirement. Spending cuts, caps, and promises of any kind are always temporary — a constitutional amendment is permanent. A constitutional mandate to pass a balanced budget every year would legally force Congress to only spend what it takes in, with an exception for emergencies.

Fifteen years ago, a balanced-budget amendment passed the House with bipartisan support, only to lose by one vote in the Senate. Since then, the debt has grown by $9.2 trillion.

The balanced-budget amendment is a game-changer. We must fight for its ratification as the ultimate solution to our nation’s fiscal crisis.

As a part of the August debt limit agreement, the House and Senate will have to vote between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. To pass both the House and Senate, this Constitutional amendment would require a two-thirds majority (290 representatives, 67 senators). Upon passage by the House and Senate, the Amendment would be sent to all 50 states, and three-fourths or 38 would have to ratify.

A number of versions of a balanced-budget amendment have been introduced. Some are stronger than others, but any of them would be a huge improvement over the lack of discipline we have now.

It is also time for the Senate to finally vote on the many jobs bills the House has sent. The House has passed more than 20 jobs bills — all with bipartisan support. The Senate is sitting on the vast majority of our jobs bills. And the president, unfortunately, is not calling for action on them.

These are common-sense bills that address excessive federal regulations that are hurting small business job creation. They were written after listening to the farmers, manufacturers, and small-business people from around the country.

Regrettably, President Obama recently told an audience at a campaign fundraiser that Americans have lost “our ambition, our imagination.” I would invite the president to visit my district in Colorado. He will find that they are working harder, making more sacrifices, and living within their means. They simply ask that their government do the same.

If we choose to do nothing and continue on the fiscal path we are on, in just ten years, 95 percent of all federal taxes will be used to pay off our debt and fund our unsustainable entitlement programs. This will leave only five percent of our annual tax revenue for funding national defense and other essential functions of the government. Our current path is clearly unsustainable.

When the federal government gets control of its spending, the nation’s job creators will have more confidence to invest in jobs and equipment. The balanced-budget amendment will force the Congress to live within its means and will bring certainty to business. That certainty, combined with a rollback of excessive regulations, will go a long way toward shrinking our government debt, growing our economy, and putting Americans back to work. In an otherwise bleak economic atmosphere, it is our brightest glimmer of hope.