The House of Representatives voted to amend the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced budget, but failed Thursday 233-184. It is an idea that’s been around since the 1970’s and has exactly zero chance of success. Rather, it’s a political gesture to make sure the American people know that Republicans care about dealing with the debt – but just don’t look at what happened over the last year.
While a balanced budget amendment would be an effective fiscal restraint, we don’t need an amendment to the Constitution to have fiscally sane policies. We just need leaders that will fight for and enact them. That means don’t pass tax cuts without closing loopholes or cutting spending and blow through the budget caps without fixing the drivers of our debt – entitlements.
It’s long past time for Congress to get serious about the condition they are leaving the country in for young Americans. A symbolic vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment is not serious. It only confirms that Republicans know what they did over the last year was wrong – but they went through with it anyways.
