WASHINGTON – The national debt was less than $5 trillion in 1995 when a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget fell one Senate vote short of clearing Congress.
This week the debt topped $15 trillion, and today the House once again will weigh whether to require Congress to limit itself to spending only what it takes in.
“We would be in a totally different universe if that had passed,” said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Savannah, who voted for the 1995 bill.
In this universe Democratic votes might be even harder to come by than 16 years ago, because as the deficit has ballooned, a balanced budget looks like an impossible near-term dream. Even so, some Democrats plan to join the Republicans in Georgia's congressional delegation in voting yes. And Republicans are eager for a historic moment.
“I think it’s critically important for the future of our nation,” said freshman Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger. “It’s something I campaigned on. I know a lot of other guys did. … Let’s make it a very strong show of support for the next generation and how we’re going to hand this country off to them.”
The amendment must get a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress and be ratified by three-fourths of the states to be enshrined in the Constitution. It would go into effect five years later.
Atlanta Rep. David Scott said he had not made up his mind but was leaning no and reflected many of his Democratic colleagues’ concerns.
“We do have a tremendous debt issue,” Scott said. “How do you best solve that? Do you best solve that by putting yourself in a straitjacket where you don’t have the flexibility of movement given the volatility of the economy?”
The amendment does allow Congress to break its pledge in a time of war, but it would require a three-fifths vote otherwise. As the United States is increasingly concerned about the ripple effects of the European debt crisis, Scott warned against limiting the government’s ability to respond to economic turmoil with policies like the stimulus and auto industry rescue.
Also, it will take drastic steps to close the $1.3 trillion deficit within five years – steps that neither party thus far has shown the stomach for.
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s controversial House Republican budget, decried by Democrats for its conversion of Medicare to a voucher-type system, does not project a balanced budget for 50 years. A proposal by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to balance the budget in five years – in part by eliminating the departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development – earned just seven Senate votes in May.
The timeframe does not bother Rep. John Barrow, D-Savannah, who joined his Blue Dog Democratic colleagues in publicly backing the amendment.
“This is what’s needed is to bring our nation’s finances into balance,” Barrow said. “If that ain’t enough time to do it, we ain’t trying.”
Fellow Blue Dog Sanford Bishop, of Albany, said he supports the amendment as well. Reps. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, and Hank Johnson, D-DeKalb, are expected to vote no, while Georgia’s House Republicans are likely to unite in support.
Some of the state’s GOP members would prefer a more restrictive amendment that ties government spending to a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product to more explicitly limit the size of government. At a Republican caucus meeting this week, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Marietta, addressed his colleagues “at the risk of beating a dead horse” to urge a vote on a more conservative amendment, but he was unsuccessful.
Gingrey said the House could have voted on both versions, but conceded the bill hitting the floor Friday is the only one with a shot at securing enough Democrats for the needed two-thirds majority.
The vote is likely to be close. Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer said this week that he is encouraging colleagues to vote against the amendment – even though he supported such a measure in 1995. He said he reversed his stance because of poor Republican fiscal management in the intervening years, saying he now does not trust the GOP with such a budget tool.
Other Democrats echoed his comments in an attempt to pin the rising debt on the George W. Bush administration, which started two wars and added a prescription drug entitlement while reducing taxes. Still, it is the Barack Obama administration that now is breaking deficit records – as initiatives like the $787 billion stimulus package have been met with dwindling tax receipts in the poor economy.
The White House issued a statement saying it does not approve of the amendment because it would “impose serious risks on our nation’s economy,” but Obama has no power to block it because a constitutional amendment does not require his signature. The more likely graveyard is the Senate, where a nonbinding resolution in support of a balanced budget amendment earned 58 votes earlier this year. This amendment would need 67.
Gingrey held out hope that a strong House vote would put pressure on the upper chamber, while dismissing one of Democrats’ arguments against it.
“Anybody who says we don’t need a balanced budget amendment to balance the budget, that might be true,” Gingrey said. “But we aren’t doing a very good job of it.”
An eye on Washington
Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy covers Georgia's representatives in our nation's capital, tracking how the state's 13 congressmen and two U.S. senators are representing you. It is coverage you can only get in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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