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The Time for Action is Now

By: Senator Pat Toomey (Diary)  |  March 31st, 2011 at 10:27 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

As our country faces a fiscal crisis brought on by an unprecedented surge in deficit spending, it is clear that we do not have the luxury of kicking the can down the road and continuing with business as usual in Washington. Over the past two years, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have tried to convince the American people that we can borrow and spend our way to prosperity. The American people aren’t buying it, and they have made their desire for fiscal restraint loud and clear.

That’s why I am very pleased that today, the Senate Republican Conference will roll out a balanced budget amendment, cosponsored by all 47 Republican senators.

The new, consensus balanced budget amendment is exactly what our country needs. It is the result of hard work on the part of many senators and proof that we can change the way Washington works when we put our minds to it.

The path toward a balanced budget amendment started with two excellent pieces of legislation, one by Senators Mike Lee and Jon Kyl and another by Senators Orrin Hatch and John Cornyn. Over several weeks and many conversations with my colleagues, we discussed ways to merge these two bills into a compromise measure that the entire conference could embrace. We drafted a balanced budget amendment that sets firm restrictions on government spending and insures that future Congresses will not be able to waive these restrictions at their whim. And thanks to the leadership and support of Senator Mitch McConnell, a united Republican conference has thrown its unanimous support behind this measure.

Under our new balanced budget amendment:

  • The budget will have to be balanced every year
  • Federal spending will be limited to 18 percent of GDP
  • Congress can only increase taxes with a two-thirds vote of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate
  • Congress can only waive the 18 percent spending restriction with a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate, unless we are engaged in a military conflict which requires a three-fifths vote by both chambers
  • Only a declaration of war against a nation state allows Congress to waive the requirement with a simple majority
  • Congress requires a three-fifths vote to increase the debt limit

The time for action is now. As our debt approaches the $14.3 trillion statutory limit, the most irresponsible thing we can do is to increase the debt limit with no spending cuts and not spending reforms.

The balanced budget amendment is the first major step this Congress can take to impose a straitjacket on government spending, restore fiscal responsibility and enable our economy to thrive.

COMMENTS

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  • Marcus_Traianus

    Respectfully, what’s the fallback strategy here? Clearly Republicans don’t have the votes to get this through on their own.

    Also, we have worked our way back from $100b in cuts to $60b and now apparently $33.0b. How does this amendment fit into that strategy and what is the end game here?

  • Jim Tomasik

    ..

    • Jim Tomasik

      ?

  • kfwmcc

    Even if we wanted to do it all with cuts, there is no way to decrease military and health spending that’s already in the pipeline in time to balance the budgets.

    • http://teapartisan.wordpress.com Loren Heal

      …what about the $14T we already owe?

      Are T-bills on budget, so that as they come due they are paid off?

      • persiflage

        to the Constitution, or a balanced FY budget? This post is less than clear…
        If an Amendment to the Constitution, just how many years will that take to administer through the ratification process, and what will the US debt be when it is finally ratified – 15, 17, 20 trillion dollars? More?

        All of you Senators and Congresspersons need to take action NOW, to make substantial cuts on THIS year’s budget – a 100 billion cut will be taken as merely an indication of your sincerity. For now.

        Do not underestimate the growing rage in middle, taxPAYING America. The budgetary status quo threatens ourselves, our children and grandchildren with a life of permanent financial enslavement to the state. We’re not going to stand for that.

      • mspector

        The debt limit constrains current spending. All government debts are part of the current spending; they can and will (unless Obama decrees otherwise) be paid as they come due. Refusing to raise the debt ceiling means two things: no new spending projects unless corresponding funding is taken from existing spending, and some suspension of existing services that require new funding in order to continue.

        We don’t live in a perfect world. The BBA at least pushes the issue forward and returns the ball to the Dems’ court. Assuming the Dems will not go for it then the net result is to highlight the issue for 2012, leaving the GOP free to run in part on the question: “so what’s the plan?” and “can we afford 4 more?”

        • http://teapartisan.wordpress.com Loren Heal

          But thanks for the explanation.

  • johnt

    Air it out,and with no apologies. Be prepared, as I guess you are, for the hungry children/homeless people/unemployed suffering masses bit, with only the federal government standing between these millions of huddled unfortunates and the biblical seven plagues, Senator Schumer carrying the banner of triumphant altruism. As only he can.
    {The man has a heart of gold, ask him, he’ll tell you}
    This is a first step, a debate that must be had. The mere existence & exposure of this proposal is important and productive.
    Of course, you may expect the hysteria of the media, their lives being intertwined with the federal government, and an oceanic effusion of attacks and lies from our president. Nothing new.
    Go for it ! Fight with pride.

  • http://www.timelyrenewed.com timelyrenewed

    A balanced budget amendment in theory is a worthy endeavor. However, it is unclear how it will get a two-thirds vote of both House and Senate in the 112th Congress. At least one-third of each is hardcore leftists who would rather shut down government than have their ability to tax and spend truly and effectively shut down forever. The only way it will get through will be if it as full of loopholes as PAY-GO.

    If we are going to devote resources to a constitutional amendment in the 112th Congress, let’s put through an amendment to the amendment process itself which will eliminate the unnecessary convention now required by Article V and permit States to directly initiate amendment proposals. This will break the current de facto federal congressional and judicial monopoly on interpreting the Constitution, and permit grassroots patriots on the state level to initiate useful amendments such as a balanced budget amendment without having to go wait on Congress. This will also open a path to other constitutional amendments to permanently constrain future federal overreach of the sort rejected by the people in November.

    Because this “amendment amendment” is content neutral and will not directly affect their pork, and instead just symbolically just moves more “power to the people,” even RINOs and Dems should support this, making it genuinely feasible to pass it by the required two-thirds in the 112the Congress. Then constitutional amendments restoring federalism can be pursued on the state level without having to go to Washington for approval. See http://www.timelyrenewed.com

    • GetAClue

      While this proposed amendment sounds good, it is an effort in futility until we get control of the United States Senate back to the states where it belongs. As long as Senators are elected by popular vote of their constituents, they will continue to pander for votes by spending our hard earned tax dollars as a reward for votes for themselves. The ONLY way to reign in Federal Gov spending is to repeal the 17th amendment and restore the original intent of the Senate which was the States voice in the Federal Government. Only then will Congress be held in check.

    • postanalog

      SenToomey, you state:

      “The time for action is now. As our debt approaches the $14.3 trillion statutory limit, the most irresponsible thing we can do is to increase the debt limit with no spending cuts and not spending reforms.”

      You’re just not listening to us, are you? We’re $14.3 trillion in debt, and you’re proposing an increase in the debt limit as part of the solution. Politicians don’t think like normal people.

  • acat
  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    Good Morning Sir,

    I appreciate your hard work to bring this to the floor and force a vote. I have just one question. What will be your strategy when it gets either defeated or vetoes? Our soending problems will still remain extant. What then do you intend to endeavor in order to bring DC’s spending back in line with it’s ability to generate revenue without destroying personal and corporate wealth?

    V/R

    RMJ

  • http://pocketchangeproductions.net/ anotherindyfilmguy

    Is it true that passing this bill is being used to bargain through another crippling budget the Democrats want so the Republicans can avoid being blamed for causing a government shutdown?

    If so can we not have it pushed for until after 2012?

    Also, if “being blamed for” a government shutdown is a concern how about having a press conference to make it perfectly clear to the press, for what it’s worth, that the blame game is totally a ploy by the Democrats who have mainly made the mess in the first place?

  • Michael Dugas

    and their MAJORITY brothers in the house keep trying to govern from a place of fear. Until you get over your fear of a government shut down threat from the Dems you will continue to fail.
    Considering my dissatisfaction with the work of our current crop of Senate Republican, minus a select few, and their working against conservative Republicans at every turn, pardon me if I don’t get all excited over a piece of legislation that we don’t have the votes for and that already failed a vote recently.
    Your going to just have to show me.

  • averagevoterdotcom

    Kinetic Monetary Action!

  • seisner01

    Riddle:
    If it looks like a duck,
    if it walks like a duck,
    if it quacks like a duck,
    but you’re in Washington and the President says it’s a cow,
    Is it a Duck????

  • etlib

    Even should this amendment pass, the libs have a history of ignoring the clear meaning of the constitution and amendments and the repubs have a history of going along to get along.

    Should the amendment pass (unlikely and late as other posts mention) it will be essentially ignored through mechanisms such as claiming large portions of government expenditures (Social Security, maybe) aren’t covered and by manipulating the GDP numbers and by making use of whatever “emergency” loopholes the amendment contains.

    And the final arbiter will be “The Supremes,” the liberal members of which will spin the amendment and turn it on its head to allow whatever spending they like.